Hundreds of homeless Londoners are voting in Thursday's general election following a registration drive by charities supported by the Independent and Evening Standard's appeal.

Over the past six weeks, The Big Issue and smaller organisations, including The Passage in Victoria and women’s shelter the Marylebone Project have run registration days.

Electoral rules allow people without a fixed address to register at a place where they spend a lot of time, such as a hostel, drop-in centre, or even a previous address, through a “declaration of local connection” form.

In 2016, the Electoral Commission found that 2,963 people used the mechanism to register nationwide.

No official figures are yet available, but it is hoped that number will increase at Thursday's vote.

Today it is estimated that there are more than 170,000 people in London with no fixed home.

New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Show all 8 1 /8 New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Nearly 1,000 people slept in Times Square on Saturday night. The demonstrators were part of the World Sleep Out, which saw events in 52 cities over the weekend. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity The World Sleep Out raises funds for charity. As demonstrators slept in sleeping bags around the world, the charity group worked to raise its goal of $50m (£38m) in funds to combat homelessness. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Participants sprawled out on cardboard and yoga mats. “I’m nervous about the rats,” Jeanette Guzman, who came to the sleep out from Queens with her entire family, told The Independent. “But we want to feel what it’s like, and what homeless people go through sleeping on the streets … and also to raise funds.” Getty Images for The World's Big New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Will Smith met with participants and performed in Times Square. The actor spoke about his film, The Pursuit of Happiness, and performed the hit theme song from his TV series, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also attended the sleep out. “I’ll tell you what: if you look around New York City, there are loads and loads of vacant luxury apartments that we didn’t need … while there are 60,000 people homeless”, said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who was in attendance at the event and spoke to the crowd about housing being a human right. Getty Images for The World's Big New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Josh Littlejohn said the city's "can do" spirit helped the event come to life. “To my great surprise and real delight, they signed off on us closing down the entire stretch of Times Square”, he said. “It’s kind of one of those things that’s been happening a lot with this campaign, very serendipitous.” Anadolu Agency via Getty Images New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity Participants came from all over to help raise funds. Joshua Mazediak-Amey, who was from the UK and with a group of interns at the United Nations attending the Times Square event, told The Independent: “I believe it’s important that those who work for the UN show the fact that we’re committed to actually getting on the ground and being with people … that we are willing to come and be a part of things when they’re sort of on-the-ground movements like this opportunity tonight.” Getty Images for The World's Big New Yorkers sleep in Times Square to raise money for homeless charity The group told The Independent nearly 1,000 people slept in Times Square on Saturday night. The World Sleep Out aims to raise $50m (£38m) in donations for charities including the Malala Fund, the Institute of Global Homelessness and more. Mr Littlejohn has also established a new charity called the World’s Big Sleep Out Trust. All of the donations raised in the US as part of the trust would be managed by UNICEF USA. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Esther, 51, who has been living in the Marylebone Project for several months, said: “There are lots of things to deal with homelessness, no one should have to sleep or have to die in the street.

“But I’m not just voting about homelessness, I am voting on all the issues.”

Support worker Sidney Nurthen, 24, who organised three registration days for the project’s 112 live-in clients and around 100 day-centre users, said: “For the women it’s important that they have a say in this election.

“Because of the chaotic nature of rough sleeping, our day centre users mostly opted for postal votes because they didn’t know where they would be today.”

Mick Clarke, chief executive of The Passage, said 80 of the centre’s users had registered to vote on Thursday.

Stephen Robertson, CEO of Big Issue Foundation, said: “While we don’t know exactly how many homeless people have registered to vote in this election, we've had an increase in Big Issue vendors registering and have used our offices as an address.”

Together with sister title The Evening Standard, this paper has launched a two-year appeal, The Homeless Fund.