Are you homeless?

Homeless services in the UK and Winter Night Shelters in London

Click here for a full list of services for homeless people in the UK.

Click here to view Winter Night Shelters in London 2018/19 (PDF - web page). This document is subject to change.

The main referral agencies for the Newham Night Shelter are:

Crisis Skylight:
66 Commercial St, London E1 6LT
T. 0300 636 1967
Opening hours
Monday-Thursday 9am-8pm, Friday 9am-6pm, Saturday & Sunday 11am-5pm

Whitechapel Mission:
212, Whitechapel Road
London, E1 1BJ
T. 03000 111 400
Opening hours Mon - Fri: 9am - 4pm

Refugee & Migrant project (RAMP):
395 High Street North,
Manor Park
London, E12 6PG
T. 020 8471 6954

Bridges Homeless Support:
Memorial Church
395 Barking Road
London, E13 8AL
Drop in every Saturday and Monday morning.

London Borough of Newham

If you are homeless or at risk of losing your home, and have a connection to the London Borough of Newham, you can visit East Ham Customer Service Centre.

Open Monday to Friday – 9am to 5pm. Last appointment is at 3.30pm. The address is 328 Barking Road, East Ham, London E6 2RT

Click here to find more information on their website.

Referrals into Caritas Anchor House

Individuals can be referred to Caritas Anchor House by the local authority and partner agencies. Please click here to find out more.

Street homeless help and advice

An individual who is street homeless can self-refer to Streetlink by phone 0300 500 0914 or online www.streetlink.org.uk

They will be asked to provide  – Name, DOB, exact location of where they are sleeping, the local outreach street team will locate, do assessment, refer on, they should assist the individual in accessing one of their Hubs in the local area (nightshelter type of accommodation). The nearest Hub for this catchment area is in the Angel area.

An individual needs to stay in their specified location at the times they have specified for at least a few nights/1 week and need to be ‘bedded down’ e.g. have blanket or sleeping bag in order to be verified as street homeless.

They should then be issued with a ‘chain number’, this will help them access independent accommodation at a later date.

If an individual wants to be re-connected to their home country and do not have a chain number, first they have to call Streetlink (above) and go through the process, once verified they can ask for re-connection.

You can also get help and advice about Streetlink and the Re-connection service at Purpose and Belonging (see below).

Shelter - housing advice

Shelter helps people struggling with bad housing or homelessness through advice, support and legal services. Find out more: https://england.shelter.org.uk/what_we_do

London Nightstop

London Nightstop places young people, aged 16 to 25, who have nowhere to stay in trained volunteers' spare rooms. Young people receive a private room, a warm meal and somewhere safe to stay for the night, while the charity look for a more permanent solution. Nightstop in London is delivered by Depaul UK. Click here to find out more.

If you need somewhere to stay tonight, phone 07767 882881 between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Friday.

Memorial Church – Bridges Homeless Support

If you are street homeless you can go to the Memorial Community Church.

This project provides a hot breakfast every Saturday morning and a Monday drop in for people who are homeless or vulnerably housed. They can provide advice and can refer you to the local night shelters (NEWway project).

395 Barking Road, E13 8AL – the church is opposite Plaistow police station just off Balaam Street.

Purpose and Belonging Project

The Purpose and Belonging Project is a pilot initiative, aimed at helping homeless and vulnerably housed men experience the support and fellowship of community whilst giving them the opportunities and tools to grow into the people they were made to be.

On Wednesdays they invite members to take part in one or more of the positive volunteering opportunities around the borough - including helping run the Newham Food Bank, partaking in the 'Grow Together Be Together' community gardening project and volunteering at local community cafes.

On Thursdays members are invited to a day centre in East Ham. Opening from 8:30am-4pm there will be workshops throughout the day helping members find work and professionals on hand to provide debt, welfare and housing advice. There will also be ESOL and computer literacy classes, cooking lessons and sports. 

Purpose and Belonging provides support to single people over the age of 18 who are:

• wanting to move forward out of their situation
• drug and alcohol free
• have a connection with one of our referral agencies
• not going to present a risk to other members and volunteers

It’s important to stipulate they are not a ‘drop-in’ centre where anyone can turn up. They operate a tight referral process, only accepting referrals from the following organisations:

• TRIO (Targeted Rapid Intervention Outreach team from Thames Reach)
• Bridges (Saturday and Monday morning in Memorial Church, 395 Barking   Road, E13 8AL)
• Caritas Anchor House (81, Barking Road, London, E16 4HB)
• Breakfast Club at Emmanuel Church (Romford Road, Forest Gate, E7 8BD)
• Margo Baxter (Job Centre Plus, 3-9 Balaam Street, London, E13 8EB)

Visit any one of these services and they can refer you to Purpose and Belonging.