Four month Winter Night Shelter update

Glass Door Homeless Charity has been providing emergency winter night shelters for more than 20 years and operates the UK’s largest network of open-access winter night shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Our 2025/26 season of winter shelters opened on 10th November. 

Our shelters run in circuits across three London boroughs – one in Kensington and Chelsea, one in Hammersmith and Fulham, and one in Wandsworth. And, like all of our services, our night shelters run on an open access basis. This means that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can turn to us for support.  

For the third consecutive year, our shelters are organised into three circuits: mixed-gender, men’s, and women’s. In addition, we host a weekly women’s drop-in casework session to provide dedicated support for guests staying in our women’s shelters. 

Each circuit offers up to 35 people a safe place to sleep every night, along with a hot evening meal, breakfast the following morning, and access to our Casework services. 

We're now four months into our 2025-26 night shelter season. These are the insights from the frontline: 

• 1,324 people have been referred to our shelters.  

• 445 guests have stayed in the shelters, of whom:  

• 58% were men, 41% women and 1% non-binary or prefer to self-describe.  

• 77% were previously sleeping rough.  

• The youngest was 18 and the oldest 79. 

• 39% were under the age of 35. 

• The average length of stay in the shelters has been 23.5 nights.  

• 316 shelter guests (71%) have engaged with our caseworkers, of whom 82 have already been moved towards more permanent housing, 33 have received financial support and 27 have been connected to health services.  

Read our previous blog from three months into the shelters. 

Stay tuned for updates.