Winter Shelter 2020

With great sadness we have to confirm that we will not be able to run our Winter Shelter this year.

Since the summer we have been closely monitoring the guidance from the Government, Bradford Council and Public Health England, and have been in close discussion with Housing Justice who provide advice and support for night shelters such as ours.

This guidance has consistently precluded us running a Winter Shelter this year, and whilst everybody involved hoped for enough improvement in the situation to allow us to open, it is now clear that even if there was significant improvement in the coming weeks (which seems unlikely), there would no longer be enough time for us to prepare to run a Winter Shelter safely.

We have of course been wondering how we can continue to support people who find themselves homeless in Bradford and make sure that our guests are not left out in the cold this winter. We know that many of our volunteers are sad not to be able to play their part: this is the first time in eleven winters we haven’t provided shelter for the homeless and it hurts!

However, we have some exciting news.

We are going to purchase two Urban Emergency Sleep Pods from Amazing Grace Spaces, and will be working in partnership with Humankind and Hope Housing to place them so that they can be used for emergency accommodation. This will at least allow us to provide emergency support to two individuals per night, as part of a number of other measures being put in place by Bradford Council, Hope Housing, Humankind and others.

If anyone would like to support us with the purchase of the first two pods (and potentially more), please let us know or donate online.

If anybody feels they might like to be more involved, perhaps by considering hosting a pod at their church, do get in touch.