the Pavement is published monthly by a group of individuals who give their time and expertise free of charge. The small amounts of funding we receive come from private firms or individuals who offer to help, and the money we get goes on the printing of the newspaper.

The idea of publishing a newspaper for the homeless was thought up by the current editor, Richard, and the production editor, Nick, who met while working at a shelter in London. They were conscious that those who find themselves homeless in London are often unaware of the services available to them. The Pavement would be a handy, regularly updated guide to where rough sleepers can find food, a shower and a shave, medical and legal advice, drugs councelling or, just possibly, a bed for the night. To go along with this info, the Pavement would print cartoons, crosswords, news and features, not necessarily all about homelessness – our readers tend to know a lot about that already.

Richard and Nick were joined by a typographer, Jason, who designed the masthead and fonts. Next came the Pavement's two lawyers, Nina and Haj, who work in large firms but have knowledge of the legal issues surrounding homelessness. Flo, a nurse with a detailed knowledge of homelessness, volunteered to answer readers' medical questions in a monthly column. This website followed, along with our domain names, provided by Knighsbridge Online. We're printed by Burmans in London, and we'd like to thank Michael Burman for cutting his throat to keep our costs down. We’ve had a lot of help from Private Eye in securing cartoons from some of the world's best cartoonists. And the Guardian lends us its puzzle setters for our cryptic crossword.

Each month we receive material from many voluntary sources, including freelance journalists, news hounds, photographers and homelessness experts.

Thanks to recent sponsors for their funding, including Shelter. If you'd like to help out with funding, hardware or pictures and words, please email the editor and get involved.

The Trustees are Jason Smith (chair); Clare Goff (secretary); Richard Chumbley (treasurer). Contact them.