Billboards and television advertisements remind us that Christmas is coming.

But as the festive season gets under way, Shelter, the national charity working to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing, is asking us to spare a thought for the 35,000 people who could face losing their homes before Christmas.

As Shelter’s Christmas campaign steps up a gear, encouraging people to support the charity’s work to ensure that those who have fallen on hard times have a roof over their heads, we are also reminded to think about those in Bradford itself.

Four years ago, the City Lights project launched as a trial by the Holme Christian Community church and other churches in Bradford. Church minister Mark Woodhouse recalls 45 people turning out to the first session, held on a big yellow double-decker bus.

Parked in Bradford’s Centenary Square, the vehicle provided a safe, warm environment where homeless people could sit down and eat a hot meal in the company of friendly, supportive volunteers.

Over the years, costly repair bills forced the project to downsize to a minibus, which isn’t ideal. While suitable for the summer months when visitors can eat on tables and chairs outdoors, in winter the vehicle is often the only warm under-cover space the homeless have to shelter from the cold for an hour or so. The double-decker bus could accommodate a crowd of people, but not so much the minibus.

Ideally, the volunteers who dedicate their time to run this Sunday evening operation would love to replace their double-decker but up until a few weeks ago they feared they would have to shut down the operation for good through lack of funding.

Having £25,000 to kit out a double-decker to suit their requirements, providing a kitchen and seating area similar to what they had on the big yellow bus would be, says Mark, ‘a pipedream.’ Their focus from now until Christmas is maintaining the survival of the project which, on average, is feeding more than 70 homeless people a week.

“There is a need and it isn’t just food, it’s the conversation. We try to get 12 volunteers down there so as people are eating they can chat with them,” says Mark.

He recalls a woman who called to say she wanted to donate the wages from her new job to the charity up to Christmas to keep it going. “I am bowled over. She is a lovely lady and really cares, she cares for everyone,” he says.

Money from the anonymous supporter and others will keep City Lights running until the beginning of the new year when Mark envisages the need for such services could increase as the impact of the global economic crisis really hits home.

Mark says that through the various services Holme Christian Community already provides, such as employment skills and training, and debt and benefit advice, the team behind the project is already noticing increasing hardship.

City Lights isn’t the only project in Bradford looking after the needs of the city’s homeless people, but the more there are the more people they can reach.

“We have a month-and-a-half to look around and find some more money, but December is the worst time to be looking for money,” says Mark.

Considering that the average age of a homeless person dying is 37, projects such as City Lights and the other projects doing similar work in the district demonstrate there is a need.

“It is hope for the city and what we are trying to do is bring hope to the hopeless, to those who have not got any hope at all, those who are on the fringes of our society,” says Mark.

* For more information about City Lights, call (01274) 681112.