A London-based homelessness charity has launched an app that uses geolocation technology to let people tell them that a person is sleeping rough by making a donation.

The Donate Locate app is available on Apple devices and enables people to donate £1, £3, or £5 to The Connection at St Martin's when they see someone sleeping rough and want to help.

It will also record the location that they were at when then made the donation so that the charity’s outreach team can assist the person in need.

Beki Winter, street outreach manager of The Connection, said: “After seeing the Donate Locate app concept, we instantly felt it was right for us. It not only allows our outreach teams to help locate homeless people, it also empowers people so they can do something to help a rough sleeper away from the streets without giving money directly, which in the majority of cases does more harm than good. ”

The app was created and built by Soul. Shaun Moran, founding partner and creative director, said: “The concept for the app came about when discussing the issue of begging and the dilemma people face when deciding whether to give some spare change to a homeless person – what will it be spent on? With this in mind, we discussed various ways of helping homeless people you see without giving them money directly; this thinking informs our Donate Locate app.”

• Last week Kirsty Weakley attended a hackathon that aimed to brainstorm ways to use mobile technology to support the homeless. Read her blog here.