Charity warns of desperate conditions faced by homeless people as cold weather closes in

Published: 3 December, 2010
by PETER GRUNER

‘One minute you’re living in a warm house, the next you’re on the streets’

HOMELESS campaigners in Islington are calling for more night shelters and extra volunteers to help with the desperate plight of people forced to live on the streets during the coldest nights of the year.

The borough’s night shelters were filling up quickly this week, with many homeless people being turned away despite the bitter cold.

Emergency shelter was being found in hospital waiting rooms and mainline stations. One homeless man managed to keep warm by travelling on night buses.

Louie Salvoni, co founder of Shelter from the Storm, in King’s Cross, said his emergency hostel is open six nights a week at present, excluding Friday, from 6pm to 8.30am, but is planning to extend to seven nights.

“If we are full, and people turn up without a referral, we have to turn them away,” he said. “The law is very strict about the numbers of people we can take in. It is so important that there are more night shelters like ours.”

The Islington Tribune visited the shelter on a bleak industrial estate in Blundell Street on Monday night when there were 36 homeless guests, including 12 women. They were aged from 18 to 66.

Former business studies student Jateen Muthyala, 34, told how he was so desperate for somewhere warm that he started sleeping on night buses. 

He said: “I have a bus pass so I’d catch a night bus at Trafalgar Square.  I’m able to sit in the warm for the one and a half hour journey to Romford or Heathrow airport. Often I’ll simply get off and get the next bus back to central London.”

Former office cleaner, Tanzanian-born Melissa, 57, described how she lost her job after becoming ill and then found difficulties getting work again. “One minute you’re working and living in a warm house,” she said, “the next you are on the streets. I’ve slept in main line stations and even in a bus stop. I thank God for this shelter because it is not always easy to find somewhere.”

Mr Salvoni said that the shelter has a list of 200 volunteers who include everyone from students and manual workers to a former special branch police officer, barristers and doctors. 

“But they are not always available and once we go to seven nights we are going to need more help,” he explained. “Once you are committed to seven nights you can’t go back on it.”

Co-founder Sheila Scott said the hostel is getting more and more young people aged 18 to 24 referred to them. She said: “It might be to do with the breakup of families or with a partner or drug and alcohol abuse. Homelessness in today’s harsh economic climate is a lot closer to people than ever before. It’s a downward spiral that can happen to anyone.”

Ms Scott is a single parent with five children aged from 19 to 25, and a former church warden at St James in Prebend Street at the Angel. 

She added: “I always thought that we live in this very upmarket borough yet there is so much desolation and poverty hidden beneath which we know so little about.”

Islington Council give the charity rate relief on the building. But running costs of £104,000 a year have to be generated by fundraising. In September actor Stephen Fry raised thousands at a special event.

The charity’s benefactors include takeaway chain Prêt A Manger, which contributes financially and often finds jobs for homeless people. Sainsbury’s donate food every four to six weeks, Gail’s bakery in Exmouth Market and Euphorium in Chapel Market donate bread and importers Carnevale donate Italian foods.

• Email: mail@shelter fromthestorm.org.uk