The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Christian Action
and Response in Society
Community of Camden Churches Cold Weather Shelter         
Our Winter Shelter closed, as usual, at the end of March. C4WS is now preparing for the new Shelter season next winter. Bill Risebero, Chair of CARIS Camden,  gives a short progress report.

First of all, may I say how grateful we are to everyone, at Hampstead Parish Church and elsewhere, who contributed money to last season`s Shelter. The appeal, publicized in Hampstead and other local churches raised more than £2000, including some regular standing orders. This made a major difference to the finances of the Shelter, and we could not have done without it.

In a typical month of our four-month Shelter season, our big team of volunteers and our two professional staff worked with 25 or 30 homeless guests, not only sheltering them, but also helping them create their own future, through befriending and mentoring, arranging placements in hostels or flats, or finding training or employment opportunities.

Each year, we find that the pattern of homelessness changes, reflecting significant, and sometimes disturbing, social change. This year more of our guests were women – over 30% of the total. An increasing number of guests – about half – were below the age of 25. And, contrary to popular press reports about immigrants coming here to benefit from the Welfare State, a large proportion of our guests had no recourse at all to public funds. We had to work much harder to find them placements – their stay in the Shelter was longer than usual, and the `move-on` rate much slower.

We are now discussing next year, and making plans. More Camden churches are coming onto the scheme, and we shall be extending the 2010-11 season to five months, opening in November. Political parties talk of cutting homelessness while at the same time reducing the resources that would make such a thing possible.  In the meantime, the churches` responsibility is clear – to express the Gospel through the two-way relationship which comes from offering friendship and hospitality.