9 November 2020

Glass Door is calling for rapid testing so that night shelters can open safely and save lives. The story was featured on BBC London  evening news on 9 November.

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BBC's Journalist Tom Magill went along to our partner venue, Chelsea Methodist Church, to see Glass Door's new community dinner service in action. 

A solution for government

He spoke to Glass Door CEO Lucy Abraham, who suggested a solution for the government so that winter night shelters might be able to open safely and save lives:

"The problem with the shelters at the moment is that shared air space is a real risk for the transmission of Covid.

What we're asking from the government is to make rapid testing available to the homeless population and, in particular, to night shelter services like Glass Door. That would enable us to open up safely to many many more people.

"The concern otherwise is that people will very likely be out in the streets, and some people might die in the cold. There are not the shelter spaces there would usually be as services are not able to offer them," Lucy said.

Part two: our own @Horitz live on @BBCLondonNews with @journotommagill as together with @missionswl we launch the new dinner service. https://t.co/rVYrQk88nC pic.twitter.com/U5SK3HvsHL

— Glass Door (@GlassDoorLondon) November 10, 2020

Big Issue vendor Simon's story

The BBC also spoke to Big Issue vendor Simon who comes to the King's Road Community Drop-in at Chelsea Methodist Church for takeaway food at lunchtime.

He has suffered a huge loss in income due to the coronavirus crisis and admits he fears waking up next to a dead body this winter if things continue this way. Said Simon:

The cold is one thing, the wet and the rain and the windy cold. You have to be pretty resilient.

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Find out more

Read our letter asking government to make testing available.

No one should have to sleep on the streets of London, especially at Christmas. And especially not during a global pandemic. 

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