Month 4 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. Open access means that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can turn to us for support. 

Our winter night shelters opened on 4th November and are operating seven nights a week until 6th April. 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 to help guests build a route out of homelessness.  

We're now four months into our 2024-25 night shelter season, which is our busiest winter season ever so far – we've been near capacity every single night. These are our latest insights from the frontline:  

• 1,464 people have been referred to our shelters.  

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

• 61% were men, 38% women and 1% prefer to self-describe.  

• 84% were previously sleeping rough.  

• The youngest was 18 and the oldest 78.  

• The most common age categories were 22-34 (35%), followed by 35-49 (31%) and 50-69 (29%). 

• The average length of stay in the shelters has been 22 nights.  

• 328 shelter guests have engaged with our caseworkers of whom: 

• 80 have already been moved towards more permanent housing.  

• 31 have received financial support.  

• 14 have been connected to health services.

Due to increased demand, we’ve had to close our men’s shelter referrals twice already this season – once in December and for a second time in January. Year after year, we are unable to meet the true demand for shelter in London despite providing emergency shelter for hundreds of people every winter. 

You can read our previous blogs from one month, two months and three months into the shelters, and stay tuned for our final update next month – our night shelter season comes to an end in April. 

You can find out more about our shelters by watching our recent shelter film, bringing together members of the Glass Door team and some of our incredible volunteers to offer you a sneak peek into our night shelters: