Streetsmart Moves Into Hotel Sector


Restaurant charity StreetSmart, which supports the homeless, is to branch out into the hotels sector. The company is to launch a sister campaign, SleepSmart, which will run throughout November and December and will see participating hotels ask their customers to make a voluntary donation of £1 on top of their hotel bill. The money raised will be used to help the homeless, including the provision of sleeping bags, clothing, laundry, showers, medical help, employment and social security advice, vans for food delivery and support for the abused. The scheme is sponsored by Deutsche Bank, which covers all of StreetSmart and SleepSmart's administration costs, so all proceeds go directly to the charity's projects. The original fundraiser asks restaurant diners to add an optional £1 to their bill. The 2009 Christmas campaign involved more than 550 restaurants in 18 cities across the UK, and raised £455,000. Since it launched in 1998, StreetSmart has raised more than £4.2m for the homeless.