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Two themes to challenge:

1) Contactless is an unsafe payment method. It should not be forced on bank customers - and should not become the default (or only) means of payment for anything.

2) Stop treating the symptom (i.e. homelessness) without tackling the root cause (i.e. mass immigration.)

5 million extra people since 2004 have pushed up housing costs - and displaced the poorest in society who cannot afford rent increases.

So any funds raised should be aimed at discouraging immigration - until house building has caught up (along with extra classrooms, health clinics and transport)

Two themes to challenge:

1) Contactless is an unsafe payment method. It should not be forced on bank customers - and should not become the default (or only) means of payment for anything.

2) Stop treating the symptom (i.e. homelessness) without tackling the root cause (i.e. mass immigration.)

5 million extra people since 2004 have pushed up housing costs - and displaced the poorest in society who canot afford rent increases.

So any funds raised should be aimed at discouraging immigration - until house building has caught up (along with extra classrooms, health clinics and transport)

Excellent iniative.  Just hope the administration costs only take up a small proportion of monies raised.

I live in south east London, and only rarely travel into central London, so having donation points more widely dispersed, e.g. in Bromley shoping centre, would be realy useful.

Is a good idea as long as you've got the money and it is going to the people who need it.

Super idea and delivered at the right price point. Few carry money these days and this will get more people thinking about homelessness.

How do we really know where the money is going? I'm worried about fraud and that more than £3 could be taken from my account. I do give money to the homeless regularly - but it looks like the public are now being asked to solve the problem when it is the government who need to help these people and eradicate homlessness. 

This is a great idea and presumably will mean that the money goes to organisations helping people to move into stable accommodation, rather than to sustain a life on the streets.

The benefit to them being on the street (rather than online for example) is that people can donate there and then rather than giving cash directly to people (which is never a great idea) but are likely to still remember that they want to donate. 

I'd worry about fraud (as some other people have mentioned) but if it's small amounts it's a risk worth taking. 

Great initiative. It would be good if there was publicity about how the money would be used; some simple clear messages which will get across everyone. Nobody wants to have fellow Londoners sleeping rough or begging.

Never heard of this idea- sounds great on paper, but what if fraudsters created fake 'Tap' points?

Nice idea, let's use some of the money also to tackle the cause of homelessness so that we can try to prevent it.

Time will surely tell whether this idea is effective. However, I noticed there are just a bunch of 'Tap London' points, and they are all in central London.

I wonder if it wouldn't be more effective to just have some advertising boards with QR codes for a website where the payment could be done easily. The boards could be put on public transport, and in this way it would be possible to reach far more people.

This was an idea that was discussed as part of our coding project at Birkbeck University. This would be a brilliant idea. With people not carrying as much change as was once before (including myself) this gives us the opportunity to offer people around London a small donation. 

In regards to homelessness it will be about collaborating with homeless charities to ensure that the money is going towards safe shelter for that person. 

I have not heard of this way of donating but I think it is a fantastic idea, as it allows people to donate when they are able to do so and not worry about not having change or not wanting to subcribe on a money basis. It frees people and gives them a choice

No I hadnt heard of this before.

I would be more inclined to give this way than directly to someone begging and saying they were homeless on the streets..

I'm not convinced that this will in any way replace the issue of begging - if I were begging I'd want my own money not someone smiling to tell me they'd just tapped £3 for my sort of person.  It'd not a bad idea but it doesn't answer the need to direct people to the agencies it supports.  Sites like streetlink and nextmeal do this and don't necessarily require lots of £3 donations but just public - dare we add mayoral - awareness.

This depends on one's confidence in the fairness of a centralised system of distributing the money to charities.  I have not found such systems, whether run by central or local govenrment, to be very fair in the past.  They generally subvert the charity (and the charity's resources) to their own political priorities. 

I have extensive knowledge of the charitable sector and I am sickened at the way some charities (including homelessness charities) are operating like big corporations with the bloated salaries, expenses, offices and staff levels of successful businesses.  People need to know hteir donations are going direct to people in need, and for that the system has to be focussed on local (borough by borough) work.

This system would work with a clearly designated objective such as: 'We aim to have a volunteer-run and locally-led night shelter in every one of London's 32 boroughs, to which any homeless person can apply themselves for a bed for the night.  Donate so we can achieve this objective.  You will be able to visit the shelter, and volunteer if you wish.'

How much does the machine cost to run. How much goes to admin fees and how much actually goes to the charity??

I don't trust contactless payments and never use them for anything, so am not going to use them for donations but appreciate that many people do use them and for those people it seems a good idea. However, I agree with other comments that it is an utter disgrace that anyone is living on the streets. I never say beggars on our streets in the past except in poor countries abroad.

It is really just another way to collect money for the homeless, and I am certainly not against the idea. Yet, in truth, here are far too many organisations that collect money for the homeless already. Even places of worship collect money for the homeless, one being St Martin in the Field situated very near Trafalga Square, even places of worship in my own area are known to help the homeless, one regularly being a soup run. 

I have to say, trying to make people feel guilty just to collect money is not good, indeed there are many people who are struggling financially themselves.  

In my own opnion. Homeless Charities need seriously to come under one umbrella in London, as it is the only way we can really make sure that the money is received and spent well on all the homeless people in London and also offering homeless people a point of direct contact to help them. However, will the London Mayor allow homeless charites to come under one umbrella, if not then why not?

There is no valid excuse for any Homeless Charity refusal to come under one Umbrella in London. If the London Mayor is really serious about helping the homeless and protecting such vulnerable people then placing all homeless charities in London under one Umbrella is the only really anwer for progress.   

I'd rather our government would use our taxes to not leave the most vulnerable behind. The right to shelter is a human right. Any nation that calls itself a world leader, should work out how to shelter its vulnerable. Fix the benefit system, fix the disaster that is universal credit, end austerity. Stop relying on private charity - use our taxes to take care of us.

A good idea, but it would be even better if my card and donation could be linked to a registered charity so they can claim the tax via gift aid.

I think this is a really good way of contributing and will do so the next time we are in London 

I had not heard of it but it is not a bad idea. For myself I already give a lot to charities and I try to do it in a structured way involving discussions with my family. I would probably use the tap device but I would have to be sure it was going to some cause we agree with. And we would probably give if there were a particular emergency issue.

I think making it easier to give to charity is a great idea. As we sometimes leave home with no cash, now that contactless payments are so widespread, it was important to make this method available. Anything that helps with homelessness needs to be applauded.