Month 2 of our 2024-25 Night Shelter Season: Frontline Insights

Glass Door Homeless Charity has been operating emergency winter night shelters for over 20 years. We run the UK's largest network of open access winter night shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Our winter night shelters opened on 4th November, and will operate seven nights a week until 6th April. 

Open access means that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can turn to us for support. We run three night shelter circuits – one in Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Wandsworth.  

For the second year running, our shelters are split between a mixed-gender circuit, men’s circuit and women’s circuit, and we’re also holding a weekly women’s drop-in casework session that supports our women’s shelter guests. 

Each circuit offers up to 35 people a safe place to sleep each night, as well as a hot dinner and breakfast the next morning, and access to our casework service. 

We're now two months into our 2024-25 night shelter season. These are the insights from the frontline: 

• 1030 people have been referred to our shelters. 

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

• 65% were men, 34% women and 1% other. 

• 85% were previously sleeping rough. 

• The youngest was 18 and the oldest 78. The most common age categories were 21-34 (33% of guests), followed by 35-49 and 50-69 (both 31%). 

• The average length of stay in the shelters has been 16.1 days. 

• 209 shelter guests have engaged with our caseworkers, of whom 28 have already been moved towards more permanent housing, 19 have received financial support and 6 have been connected to health services. 

Just over three weeks after the shelters opened in November, we had to temporarily close referrals for men because of the level of demand for shelter places. Midway through December, our waiting list got down to the point where we were able to re-open referrals for men. 

In the lead-up to Christmas, guests at one of our shelters were able to enjoy handmade mince pies that were kindly donated by Wetherby Senior School.

Most recently, on 2nd January, a drop in temperatures led to the Greater London Authority triggering its Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) for the second time this winter. Once again, this led us to activate our own Emergency Cold Weather Policy (which means we increased our shelter capacity to up to 40 people each night for each circuit).

Temperatures remain dangerously cold, and we expect see continued high demand for shelter throughout the winter.

Read our previous blog from one month into the shelters. 

Stay tuned for updates every month.

You can find out more about our shelters by watching our recent night shelter film: