In Newport’s churches, homeless people can find a warm place to sleep this winter.
Local charity Eden Gate manage a grassroots project called the Night Shelter. It’s run by volunteers from churches across Newport. Guests of the Night Shelter will be given a warm welcome, a hot meal and bed and breakfast within a safe environment. The shelters operate in a different church building each night of the week, with a local team of volunteers taking responsibility for each night.
Graeme Hunter, 38, is a pastoral assistant and shelter coordinator at Christchurch Centre. When talking about what the guests do at the shelter, he said they have free time to read the papers, play pool or table tennis, and generally they just hang around and chat. “As a church,” explains Graeme, “we’re fortunate because we’ve got a big space in our foyer where the guests can sleep, we have showering facilities, it’s warm and there’s space to move around.”
Being homeless is a terrifying prospect, and having somewhere safe to go to at night could make all the difference for some people. Laura, 29, was homeless and had battled with drug addiction for over 16 years. She was able to find help at the Night Shelter, where they helped her fill out forms for her to go to rehab. She says, “I don’t know whether I would still be living now, or where I would be if it wasn’t for the Night Shelter team.”
Volunteer Kate Slocombe, 48, who cuts the guest’s hair, said seeing them turn their lives around is all the motivation she needs. She says, “They could come in and you wouldn’t even recognise them.” One time, she elaborated, a guest had said that he was planning on getting married.
The Night Shelter will open 28 November 2016 and close Sunday 2 April 2017.