Democracy doesn't work when people don't know  Upgrade to paid

NEWS

St Petrock’s Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter homelessness charity’s fundraising campaign features short film exploring how it feels to be homeless.

Leigh Curtis

Exeter homelessness charity St Petrock’s has launched its Christmas 2023 fundraising appeal with a short film exploring how it feels to be homeless.

The two-minute video, produced by Devon film-makers All Told, features four local people who are rebuilding their lives following homelessness.

Each credits St Petrock’s with helping them get them back on their feet.

Alfie, who appears in the film, grew up in the care system and lived on the streets for eight years. He says Christmas was particularly hard: “Watching people walking by with their children, I felt invisible and lonely”.

St Petrock’s supported Alfie and helped him into secure accommodation where he now lives with his fiancée, Naomi.

He adds: “I was just a lonely man in a lonely doorway. Then Petrock’s came along and and lifted me up”.

St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal 2023

The number of people sleeping rough in Exeter remains at a critically high level after doubling last year.

On a typical night, between 25 and 35 people sleep rough on the streets of Exeter. They are not a static group: people find themselves newly-homeless every week.

Many others are homeless but not living on the streets.

There are many causes of homelessness, although it often has roots in childhood trauma or later events such as the breakdown of relationships.

The loss of homelessness prevention services and the cost of living and housing crises have made the situation worse.

St Petrock’s director Peter Stephenson says: “Sadly, we’re all too familiar with seeing people living on our streets and of course there are many others, hidden from view, sleeping in garages or sheds, on sofas or in cars.

“All of them have had things happen in their lives that most of us thankfully will never experience, and it is that traumatic experience that lies at the root of rough sleeping.

“Sleeping rough, people face extreme physical and mental hardship, as well as the constant danger of abuse and assault.

“It is incomprehensible that some still try to portray rough sleeping as if it were a lifestyle choice. No one chooses to be homeless.”

St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal

St Petrock’s began providing homelessness support in December 1994. Its team, supported by 30 volunteers, helps people to access housing, healthcare, benefits and other essential services.

From its centre in Cathedral Yard it provides hot showers, laundry facilities, phone and internet access and supplies survival equipment and clothing.

It also prepares and serves breakfast and lunch to rough sleepers across the city each weekday. It will provide a full Christmas lunch to all its clients on 25 December, with gifts.

The charity also provides accommodation for people without a home and is actively pursuing the purchase of more properties for this purpose.

Almost all its funding comes from the local community.

St Petrock’s Christmas appeal aims to raise funds to support its work at what it is a difficult time of year for rough sleepers.

The festivities many take for granted can make the experience of extreme poverty suffered by those without a home more severe.

They often also bring back difficult memories of past Christmases, of loss or trauma fuelled by festive excess, at a time when social isolation and loneliness can feel acute.

This year the demand for St Petrock’s support is higher than it has ever been.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

You can donate to the St Petrock’s Christmas appeal on its website, where you can also find out more about regularly supporting its work.

The charity has also recently launched a partnership scheme for local businesses.

Petrock’s Place, its vintage clothing shop in Paris Street, accepts donations of essentials such as rucksacks, sleeping bags and clothing as well as small gifts such as chocolate, flasks and hairbrushes, among other things on its wish list.

The shop is open from 11am-5.30pm Tuesday to Saturday and can be contacted to arrange a drop-off via info@stpetrocks.org.uk.

Democracy doesn't work when people don't know

Public interest news that holds power and influence to account is more important now than it has ever been.

Democracy doesn't work when people don't know who is deciding what on whose behalf and what the costs and consequences of those decisions will be.

Exeter Observer was created to deliver the independent investigative journalism our local democracy needs.

It exists because people who think what we do matters are willing to chip in each month to help cover our costs.

We need more of our readers to contribute like this so we can keep producing and publishing our essential reporting.

137 of the 300 paying subscribers we need have signed up so far. Join them today to help us reach our goal.

If you value the work we do please support our work from less than £2/week. It's a small investment for a very big return.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended

Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.

Boneyard arcade games

Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search

Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.

Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

On Our Radar
Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

EXETER CASTLE

Exeter Philharmonic Choir

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025

The Weather Book

Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

EXETER CATHEDRAL