Video: Emmanuel House will launch the Nottingham Winter Shelter next Monday.
With the amount of people sleeping on the street in Nottingham at an 18-year high, Emmanuel House launches their winter shelter on Monday.
The Emmanuel House Winter Shelter runs for 20 weeks during the colder months providing more than 20 beds per night to rough sleepers.
The number of rough sleepers in the city have risen from 13 to 38 in just 12 months and the shelter is designed to be a lifeline for homeless individuals through the winter.
The shelter provides emergency shelter, physical and emotional support and helping guests to try and sort out long term accommodation.
Chief Executive of Emmanuel House Denis Tuly said: “The Winter Shelter is absolutely critical we know that when the temperature drops below a certain degree that sleeping on the streets or staying on the streets is a risk to life.
“The Winter Shelter is absolutely a lifeline to many people helping them to survive through the winter.”
The shelter starts off at the Trent Vineyard before moving to Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, St Saviours in the Meadows, Mansfield Baptist Church and finally The Friends Meeting House.
Mr Tuly said: “We know that this year because of the rising figures of rough sleeping there is going to be extra demand on our bed provision.
“The staff work with people, one of the things we do is contract with people who use our service that they will work with us to take the steps they need to take to move from rough sleeping into accommodation.”
Emmanuel House are running the shelter alongside Framework, a charity and housing association that also helps homeless people.
Team leader of the street outreach team at Framework Sam Lloyd said: “There’s a nationwide trend which Nottingham isn’t exempt from in seeing an upward rise in rough sleepers, and we are no different.
“The first two quarters of this year our team has found nearly 400 individuals rough sleeping in the city so our day to day work is very busy trying to get all those people off the streets as quickly as possible.”
Last year the shelter was able to resettle over 55 per cent of the people who accessed it.
Tracey Wallace is a former rough sleeper who found help through Emmanuel House, she said: “The support here at Emmanuel House got me into London Road and I still continued coming here and then after that I got a place in the Arboretum which is very nice.
“I came here for support and got everything, I’ve got a home again now which I call my castle it’s my freedom when I walk out of their and lock up I have peace of mind basically.”
