It’s the season of good deeds and Emma Regan, who volunteers at Halifax Homeless Shelter Huddersfield Street Kitchen, has well and truly been getting in the Christmas spirit. Inspired by a similar scheme in Dublin, Emma has been leaving coats hanging on a bridge in Halifax to help keep the homeless warm this winter.
The coats were hung on the bridge yesterday as a result of thousands of pieces of clothing being turned away across Calderdale due to COVID-19 fears, the Halifax Courier reports. There had been a lot of coats donated to be hanged on the North Bridge in Halifax and Emma said: “I just wanted to put what donations we had at the shelter to good use” and that it’s “good to know the world isn’t all bad”.
Ms Regan said: “To stop any contamination of the virus, the coats were cleaned by people who donated them… The police were called to the bridge twice during Sunday and they said they were happy we were keeping to rules,”
“Working in the voluntary sector, I’m aware of how many people are on the street. I just wanted to let them know they have not been forgotten about.”
Calderdale Council has been in touch with Ms Regan since the project, and the council are now offering to help with her with homeless projects going forward – but said it should not take place on North Bridge due to “safety reasons.”
The council said: “We’re happy to support people’s charitable ideas wherever we can and are in touch with the organiser of this scheme to see how we could safely support any similar initiatives in future.”
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