Giant billboards and digital advertising screens across the capital will be used to highlight the plight of people sleeping rough during the severe winter weather, as part of the Mayor Sadiq Khan’s continued campaign to help London’s homeless off the streets.

The campaign, launched at the end of November, has already raised more than £200,000 for the London Homeless Charities Group, a coalition of charities working to tackle rough sleeping, including over £42,000 raised through more than 14,000 donations via new TAP London contactless giving points. A total of 78 TAP points, which allow Londoners to donate £3 by using their contactless debit cards, have been rolled out across the capital since the campaign launched.

As Winter continues, advertising giant Clear Channel has put its weight behind the campaign and gifted more than 130 billboards and screens across London to help promote the campaign. These innovative billboards and screens will be triggered by weather data from the Met Office to display the temperature when it drops to zero or below.

With severe weather shelters now open whenever the weather is freezing, the adverts will encourage Londoners to let StreetLink know about people on the street they are concerned about via the app, website, or phoneline so that outreach teams can help. Today, as people have access to cellular weather stations (like those offered by Kestrelmet.com) at their fingertips, it has become easier to keep track of the falling temperature. It is hoped that those with easy access to amenities like this can refer to those with fewer resources. There have already been a record 9,165 referrals made to StreetLink since the campaign began – 600 more than were made over the whole of last winter when the Mayor first began promoting Streetlink to Londoners.

The billboards will be complemented by radio adverts – activated when the temperature is due to fall to zero – featuring a former rough sleeper reading the evening’s weather forecast and recounting his life on the street.

Emergency cold weather shelters across the capital have already opened for 24 nights this Winter, as temperatures hover around zero. More than 700 beds are available through the severe weather shelters funded by City Hall and boroughs, in addition to more than 600 spaces provided by winter night shelters run by faith and community groups.

Under the previous Mayor, severe weather shelters only opened if three consecutive days of freezing temperatures were forecast. Sadiq changed this, to make sure shelters are open whenever the temperature is zero or below. He has further agreed with London councils that, from this winter, severe weather shelters will now open London-wide if the temperature is predicted to drop to zero or below anywhere in the capital. Previously, shelters were opened on a borough-by-borough basis, leading to patchy provision. The weather data is collected from weather stations across the capital, similar to these weather stations here, meaning that should any of them record a temperature of zero, every severe weather shelter across London will open.

The Mayor has also worked with boroughs to sign up to the ‘In For Good’ principle – a promise that, when a person rough sleeping goes to an emergency shelter, they will be accommodated there until a support plan is put in place to help them off the streets for good.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “It is a national disgrace that so many people are being forced to sleep rough, and we know that compassionate Londoners want to help in any way they can. These innovative billboards gifted by Clear Channel will help to raise awareness of how to help rough sleepers during the freezing weather.