My hostel would take clothes and shoes Capri but our client base was mainly under 30 years old and quite often people would donate their deceased Uncle Albert`s suits, shirts and cardis which we always accepted with good grace but which were never used because the young men in the hostel simply wouldn`t wear them. Any clothing which was unused was weighed in once a year with the ragman who`d pay us something like 50p a bag and the money was put to good use. Unfortunately cash donations from individuals made out to the Salvation Army had to go to central office and couldn`t be used in our own hostel so if you`re considering donating cash to a local hostel then check first whether they actually get to keep it or not.
People often envisage homeless hostels to be full of little old men, the traditional tramp who`d hit on hard times etc. They are very few and far between these days, most of our clients were young, had drug, mental health, alcohol, behavioural, crime problems, had been released from prison or their familes had thrown them out or were bailed to us from court. A few were victims of domestic violence and a small minority were sex offenders who were not allowed to live unsupervised. We had one or two older guys who were usually suffering from self neglect and had no living relatives.
