Free laundry services for homeless people as ihateironing teams up with Crisis at Christmas
20 December 2023
UK
This holiday season, London-based laundry start up ihateironing is partnering with Crisis at Christmas, to offer free laundry services to individuals experiencing homeless people in London. Last year, Crisis at Christmas successfully supported nearly 3,500 individuals, providing warm accommodations to 450 people in London hotels, along with essential resources such as food and wellbeing support. This year, Crisis at Christmas will again host over 400 guests in their London locations, who would have otherwise been sleeping rough over Christmas.
In a heartfelt effort to make a positive impact during the festive season, ihateironing will collaborate with the charity to provide free laundry services to 100 individuals staying at their accommodations over the holidays.
Matt Connelly, founder and CEO of ihateironing, said: “Providing free laundry services to those experiencing homelessness during the holiday season is not just about clean clothes; it's about restoring dignity and contributing to the journey of positive change alongside the work that Crisis is doing. As a small business, it's a great feeling to bring together the efforts of our team and our cleaners and really make a difference."
Anna Bohoslawec, operations manager for Crisis at Christmas, highlighted the logistical challenges faced by the charity, saying: “The Crisis at Christmas Team have long been faced with the logistical challenge of how to offer our guests a laundry service. The sites we use as our Crisis at Christmas centres rarely have laundry facilities for us to use, or those that are available can’t possibly handle the vast quantity of clothing our guests are keen to wash. Some have a single domestic machine to hundreds of guests if we’re lucky. The next challenges were how to dry everything after washing, and then to reunite guests with their clothes. ihateironing are helping us to make sure that when someone walks through our doors at Christmas, it can be the day everything changes.”
The partnership aligns with ihateironing ongoing commitment to supporting local charities, including their Donation to Crisis Scheme in East London. Ihateironing believes that small gestures can leave a big impact, and this initiative is a testament to their dedication to making a difference in the lives of those experiencing homelessness.
