A HOMELESS charity must raise £10,000 if it is to help people seven days a week during the coldest months of the year.

Maggs Day Centre provides vital shelter, food and support for Worcester’s homeless five and a half days a week.

But the centre in Deansway has been forced to close on Saturdays since August, when funds ran out. Staff now hope a Christmas appeal will help the 25-year-old charity re-open on Saturdays throughout the winter – providing somewhere warm for the homeless to go.

Lorna Gilbert, Maggs service manager, said: “We are hoping this Christmas push will allow us to open on Saturdays. It doesn’t matter how small the donation is.”

It would take just 10p from every person in Worcester to ensure the centre reaches its target.

It would take just 10p from every person in Worcester to ensure the centre reaches its target.

“Even if we don’t manage to raise all the money, we are very inventive in how we use our funds,” said Ms Gilbert.

“As soon as we have enough to open for just four hours on a Saturday, we will.”

The day centre – the only one of its kind in Worcestershire and Herefordshire – costs about £6,000 a week to keep going without the extra day and is wholly reliant upon donations and grants.

It provides breakfast for 25 people a day and lunch for 60, as well as providing somewhere to wash, counselling for those who need it and working to rehome as many people as possible.

It is during the coldest months that the homeless really need support.

Each year Maggs, with St Paul’s Hostel, provides 15 beds in its Night Assessment Centre from 9.30pm, giving people a hot meal as well as any other help they may need.

Mel Kirk, clothing project manager and volunteer co-ordinator for Maggs, said: “It’s not a nice time of year for our clients and there are still not enough spaces for all of them.”

Maggs also provides help for those left to fend for themselves outside, in the form of a washing machine and tumbledrier to clean sodden sleeping bags, while for those sleeping bags which have gone beyond the point of rescue, Maggs offers a replacement – donated by members of the public.

At the moment though, with the day centre closed on Saturday, if a sleeping bag gets soaked on a Friday night, there is little that can be done about it until Sunday.

But staff are hopeful Worcester’s response to their Christmas appeal will mean that, come the new year, this will no longer be a problem, although Ms Gilbert wants to remind people the issue of homelessness is a permanent problem.

She said: “We want people to be interested all year round. Our clients don’t just go away, the problem does not crawl back under a stone.”

Maggs does not only need money this winter, it is also desperate for sleeping bags, or any other everyday items which could help.

If you want to donate or get involved, please call 01905 25027 or e-mail info@maggsdaycentre.co.uk