Streets Kitchen founder John Glackin with volunteers Tamas Kavacs and Redd Diamond at the project’s base in Kentish Town

A new mobile homelessness outreach project is launching in Islington next week.

Streets Kitchen, a group comprised entirely of volunteers, intends to descend on the borough with a group of 30 people on Tuesday to provide food, clothing, footwear and sleeping bags to rough sleepers.

The group, which runs on a “solidarity not charity” principle, already provides soup kitchens and advice services in other London boroughs, and has now decided to expand into Islington.

“Homelessness is absolutely going through the roof in London and we’re getting extremely busy,” volunteer Redd Diamond, from Archway, said.

“We’re having a discussion this week to figure out our route [through Islington]. We’ll be providing hot drinks, tea, coffee, food, soup, toiletries, bread, cakes and advice – all the essentials. The first months we will be mobile and then we can see if we can have a permanent place where the homeless guys and girls can come and find us.”

Streets Kitchen already runs soup kitchens in Charing Cross, Hackney and Camden, providing around 100 hot meals per evening, organisers said.

The group say are determined not be seen as a charity. “We’re not poverty pimps,” Mr Diamond added. “We don’t want to make money. We don’t accept any money from anyone, all we ask for is donations and people’s time by asking them to volunteer.”

The number of people sleeping on the capital’s streets rose to more than 7,500 last year, up from 3,673 in 2010.

Streets Kitchen works together with community centres and charity The Pillion Trust, as well as campaign groups such as Squatters Action for Secure Homes.

They have been given an empty warehouse space in Kentish Town by Camden Council, where they store and sort through donated goods.

The group said they will be contacting Islington Council to ask if the authority can also provide them with a space.

• Keywords
  HOMELESSNESS, OUTDOOR RELIEF, VOLUNTARY WORKERS
• Geographical keyword
  ISLINGTON (LONDON BOROUGH)
• Persons keyword
  , John Glackin