Hackney Winter Night Shelter
Annual Report 2008

Hackney Winter Night Shelter is a grass-roots project run by volunteers from across Hackney. We offer a warm welcome, hot supper, bed and breakfast in a safe environment to 25 homeless guests. The Shelter operates in a different hall each night of the week, with a local team of volunteers taking responsibility for each night. In all, 15 halls are used and over 500 volunteers work in them. We now also employ Support Workers to assist our guests finding accommodation and meeting other needs.

The Shelter started thirteen years ago as a response of several local churches to the number of rough sleepers on the streets. Since then, we have operated each year during the coldest months of the year, from January to March. This winter, the weather threw everything at our guests - teeming rain, freezing winds. One of the very earliest Easters and everywhere shut, as hail, snow and fierce winds swept the streets. However, we had our most successful winter yet, looking after 182 guests, with many of them being found long-term accommodation.

Supper at the shelter

Venues

This year we welcomed St Paul's Stoke Newington and the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Sandringham Road as Shelter venues, providing a hot meal, beds and breakfast. Hackney Downs Baptists, Christian Life Fellowship and St Matthias Stoke Newington also joined us as dormitories providing extra sleeping space.

Support Workers

For the first time last winter, we employed two Support Workers seconded from Thames Reach, a London-based charity that works with homeless people. One was at the Shelter each evening, and during the day they would work to find long-term accommodation for our guests. This had a profound effect on the running of the Shelter. The Support Worker's presence during the tense time when the Shelter opened was much appreciated, and their knowledge about homelessness and skill in communicating with guests resulted in many successful hostel placements. We are tremendously grateful to Angela and Peter for their help.

Guests

From the start, we were full each night - 22 beds at first, but rising to 25 in February. But most nights, these were not enough, and we had to turn people away. We gave over 600 extra meals to people for whom we had no beds. So many vulnerable people, so many problems, so much distress. Our guests ranged from 18 to 63 years and came in all shapes, colours and sizes. Overall, 182 guests visited our Shelter, enchanting and exasperating by turn. There were up to 4 women a night, but less than last year. A constant stream of East Europeans found their way to us. As the Shelter closed, our Support Workers had found accommodation for 16 guests, 9 were no longer homeless, 3 were on waiting lists, and 8 were still in progress. This is the first year we have been able to see our guests moving on to more permanent accommodation, and we are truly delighted.

Volunteers

As ever, we are very lucky in our volunteers, over 500 spread between 7 full shelters and 8 dormitories. In some venues church-goers predominate, but others are community based, with local links. Volunteers have joined after reading articles in local magazines, looking at our web site, been recruited by mail drop, by mixing with Christmas tree buyers, by hobnobbing in the Post Office queue. Their variety adds much to the success of the Shelter and it is good to see how positively volunteering affects them. We are proud to have two ex-guests helping us, one of whom ran a dormitory and drove the minibus. He is also training as a Trainer in drug and substance abuse, and is running our Voicemail4all service for our guests who do not have mobiles.

Training

Working with homeless people can be challenging. We arrange training courses for our volunteers, and encourage all to take advantage of them. This winter, we ran courses on First Aid and Managing Aggression. In addition, several volunteers have attended Housing Justice/Unleash courses on homelessness and substance abuse.

Funding and Support

We are very grateful to Church Urban Fund for help with salaries and to West Hackney Parochial Charities, South Hackney Parochial Charities, Hackney Parochial Charities and Stoke Newington Relief in Need, to Ely Cathedral, Richard and Ruth Veal, Great Portland Estates and Acumen P.I. for their generous support this year -and all our regular donors, St Monica's Hoxton, Holy Trinity Hoxton, Bishops Waltham Deanery, Our Lady & St Joseph Balls Pond Road, St Bartholomew Stamford Hill, St John Brownswood Park, and St John the Baptist Hackney and Dr Mullan who have supported us so faithfully over the years. To Fresh & Wild, St Elizabeth Primary School, St Monica's Hoxton and St Bartholomew Stamford Hill for their donations in kind. To Father David Lambert for his minibus and Paul for his driving.

TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED US IN ANY WAY, WE SAY A HEARTFELT THANKYOU FROM ALL OUR GUESTS AND VOLUNTEERS

Statistics

TOTALS	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Guest nights	1915	1722	1580	2017	2016
Different guests	314	286	185	268	182
Women	30	31	30	c35	23
Stayed one night	153	134	64	112	66
Stayed 2/3 nights	61	61	30	150	27
Extra meals	507	411	580	324	c650
Turned away	173	38	206	200	250

"c" indicates approximate figures

Relaxing after supper

From our Support Workers

The overall running of the Shelter worked well and met a real need. As roles and responsibilities became more clearly defined, Support Workers and co-ordinators worked together as a team with increasing confidence. The regular presence of guests made it easier to assess their needs and to find accommodation for them. Matters for future consideration include:

admission policy, including longer ticket allocation, presence of both co-ordinator and Support Worker at the door;
pre-opening briefing with Support Workers and volunteers;
clearer guidelines on the level of guests' support needs with which the Shelter can cope;
provision of separate space for interviews;
provision of back-up when Support Workers are overwhelmed with guests seeking help, which might involve training of volunteers to interact with guests better.

Guests' stories

Bill and Ben

They had been together for over 4 years and always arrived together, fiercely protective of each other - two short, frail men, bent over with the weight of their extensive luggage. They would meekly hand in their bottles of cider and quietly spend the evening, one buried in a book, one watching television. Then Ben, the younger one, got a bed in a hostel and they pined for each other's company. Despite efforts by the support workers, Bill the older one did not get accommodation, and we watched a deep and tender friendship start to splinter. But joy of joys, before the Shelter closed, Bill got an emergency bed and will soon be joining his friend.

Joe

He arrived with us, nursing a jaw broken in two places by a baseball bat. He found it hard to move his mouth to tell us his name. Staying with us for several weeks, he slowly recovered, despite a further operation. He was always quiet and grateful for the Shelter and eventually was found a hostel, got himself together and went off to drive a bus.

Guests and volunteers play dominoes

Andy

An ex prisoner, Andy stayed with us a long time, always hoping accommodation would be found for him, but this proved difficult and he took refuge in alcohol. Banned twice for 3 nights for drinking in the Shelter, we always welcomed him back but eventually his behaviour made a complete ban inevitable. What a pity - we did try very hard, and at times so did he, but not hard enough.

Jill and John

They were from Romania. He tall and taciturn, she bright eyed, always immaculately dressed and made-up, effusive and loving. They sell The Big Issue and are determined to make a go of living in Britain - no help from their family, they say - taking English lessons, passing their construction work test - inspirational in their eternal optimism against all odds.

Sharing supper with a friend

Tony

With his booming voice, he tended to arrive so late he failed to get a bed, always the same excuse "went to sleep on the train". We first met him carrying baggage for a female guest who was sick. After she went into hospital, he regularly visited her and brought us news. He was deeply devoted to his children and would trek across London to try and get a glimpse of them at church on Sundays. He is on a waiting list for help, and we hope someone will be as kind to him as he was to his women friends.

A chat while waiting for supper

Names and other personal details have been changed, but these stories are based on real people who stayed with us this year

Testimony - Jay Flynn

I'd been homeless for nearly nine months, sleeping on public transport. I hadn't had a conversation with anyone in all that time. I'd hardly eaten and was suffering badly from depression, but despite everything I was still alive.

Then on January 1st 2008 I arrived at the Night Shelter at Bouverie Road, expecting to be told that there wasn't any space for me. To my surprise I was welcomed inside, given my first hot meal in as long as I could remember, a hot shower and a change of clothes. But the best thing was that I was normal. I wasn't a homeless man, I was just a guy having conversations. I did go on a bit, but I didn't want to stop talking!

Each of the seven churches offered a varied night. One night there would be chess or cards, the next there would be a TV or you'd just chat. I even wrote a play about my time in the shelters and the different people I met.

The Support Workers from Thames Reach sorted out my Birth Certificate so I could try to get some money.

With the encouragement of the volunteers I decided to try and get myself resettled back into work. Within a week I had got a job in a pub in Stoke Newington, with accommodation! Two months later I was promoted to manager. I'll soon have my personal license so that I can have my own pub.

I couldn't have done this without the support of everyone in the shelters. I will be forever indebted to them and would love to give something back. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Participating churches, Winter 2008

Sunday	St Michael & All Angels, London Fields - with Mare Street Methodist Church and Christian Life Fellowship, Stoke Newington
Monday	URC Rectory Road - with St Olave's, Woodberry Down
Tuesday	Our Lady of Good Counsel, Bouverie Road - with St Matthias, Wordsworth Road
Wednesday	St Mary's Stoke Newington - with Place of Victory
Thursday	St Paul's Stoke Newington - with Stoke Newington Baptist Church
Friday	St Mary Eton, Hackney Wick - with St Leonard's Shoreditch
Saturday	Redeemed Christian Church of God, Sandringham Road - with Hackney Downs Baptist Church

Could you help to run Hackney Winter Night Shelter?

Volunteers in the kitchen

We are always looking for more volunteers. Our guests appreciate the friendly and informal atmosphere we provide, and you would find it interesting and very rewarding if you came and joined us. Training is provided for volunteers.

To find out more, please contact:

Hackney Winter Night Shelter
The Parish Office
St Mary�s Church
Stoke Newington Church Street
London N16 9ES

email: volunteer@hwns.org.uk

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Hackney Winter Night Shelter
Registered Charity number 1114307

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Hackney Winter Night Shelter Annual Report 2008