Wycombe Winter Night Shelter (WWNS) provided emergency care for local homeless people during the winter months from January to March 2008. It accommodated up to 10 homeless guests nightly, providing not only the essentials of a warm shelter, dinner, bed and breakfast but also friendship and practical support with homelessness and other issues. These included eviction, job loss, relationship breakdown, incapacity, alcohol and drug abuse, release from prison, mental health and despair.

WWNS was a shared venture including 7 churches that provided venues one night a week supported by 200 volunteers from around 30 churches of all denominations, and volunteers not attached to churches, to staff 3 shifts on each of the 84 nights. In total, 36 guests attended the shelter; 26 for periods of more than a week. One way or another all of these were helped into more permanent accommodation, although for two that meant prison!

WWNS was involved in multi-agency collaboration with Wycombe District Council, the Probation Service, the Old Tea Warehouse hostel, the Police, the Rent Deposit Guarantee Scheme and several drug & alcohol counselling services. WWNS is now continuing advocacy work two days a week for the other 9 months of the year, and intend to run the night shelter from 5th January to the end of March 2009.
We are seeking funding to provide a year round, full-time, ongoing advocacy worker for our guests, as this has proved to be an important and effective aspect of our work.  To find out more please visit the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter website.