Record Numbers Find Shelter and Support
Local charity Glassdoor now works in three boroughs with 30 local churches
Local charity Glassdoor have had another record-breaking year. Their shelters closed in April, but their daytime services continue to support people off the street all year round.
The charity says its expansion into Wandsworth — with seven churches joining the two established church shelter circuits in the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Chelsea & Kensington — meant fewer individuals slept on night buses, under awnings and in parks.
30 churches now provide winter shelters including Askew Road Church, Holy Trinity Brook Green, Rivercourt Methodist Church, St Dionis Parsons Green, St John's Walham Green and St Simons in Rockley Road, Shepherd's Bush.
Glass Door (formerly WLCHC) is London’s largest network of emergency winter night shelters. They provide a safe, warm place to sleep for 85 to 100 men and women a night in churches across the three boroughs.
Guests experiencing homelessness can also access advice, food, showers and laundry facilities from drop-in day centres. Glass Door not only saves lives by providing refuge from the cold, they also help their guests build more stable futures.
Every night during the coldest five months
of the year, 87 individuals on average were
able to find shelter in our network of
church halls. Thanks to a growing base of
supporters and partner churches, Glassdoor were
able to help a total of 420 individuals off
the street for an average of 32 nights each.
That’s up from 253 men and women staying in our shelters last year — a 62% rise.
Individuals who were particularly vulnerable — a woman in her sixties coming out of
hospital, for example — were able to get in right away, thanks to the additional space. “The three-shelter model gave us much
more flexibility this winter, enabling us to
turn on a sixpence when vulnerable people
came to our doors,” says Glass Door chief
Steven Platts.
May 11, 2018