THE New Journal is helping to organise a memorial service for a woman who died in a Kentish Town street after experiencing homelessness for years.

Readers were shocked to learn of the death of Lidia Venegas, who had slept in Kentish Town Road over the past six months under a makeshift shelter of plastic and polystyrene outside the old Barclay’s bank branch.

She had also been through a period of sleeping rough in Camden Town.

Ms Venegas, who was in her 60s and also known to some people as Maria, was found unresponsive in Islip Street on January 3.

Passers-by who tried to help her said she had been suffering from a bad chest before Christmas. Bouquets of flowers have been left in Kentish Town, and people have phoned the New Journal office since her death to share tributes and ask for funeral details.

White the authorities are still trying to find her next of kin and in the absence of a formal arrangement, we are working with St Michael’s Church in Camden Town to hold our own service for her next week.

Everybody is welcome to join us – there will be prayers, hymns, poems and a chance to say goodbye. People who die while they are experiencing homelessness often go without a full service.

Last week, a spokesperson from outreach organisation Streets Kitchen said: “The passing of yet another friend on the streets of Camden reminds us that we walk past temporary structures and humans sleeping under polystyrene as though it’s an acceptable part of everyday London life.

“It must end, now, and we should not need the deaths of so many people experiencing homelessness to jolt us into action.”

They added: “We all need to do more: citizens, council and national government. We are all a community facing a humanitarian crisis.”

The memorial service for Lidia will take place at St Michael’s Church in Camden Road on Thursday January 19 at 11am. We would like to thank the church and Father Michael Thomas for ­providing a