On Friday 6th October 2023, over 200 people are expected to join Glass Door Homeless Charity’s 11th annual Sleep Out. Glass Door is hoping to raise £175,000 from the Sleep Out to fund the charity’s emergency winter shelters and year-round casework service helping people build a route out of homelessness. Participants will be able to take part in Duke of York Square, Chelsea, London or remotely from anywhere in the world.
This winter, Glass Door will offer a women-only shelter for the first time, recognising the growing number of homeless women, who are generally under-represented in official counts. The shelters will be open for a longer duration this year, up to 22 weeks, with the number of spaces available up 40% from last year, and the number of spaces for women up more than 200%. The funds raised every year by Sleep Out play an important role in enabling Glass Door’s services to expand and allow more people to be supported out of homelessness.
The latest statistics on homelessness in London are shocking, with the Greater London Authority’s CHAIN figures for 2022/23 showing that rough sleeping numbers are 21% higher than the previous year, and London Councils finding that 1 in 50 Londoners are now homeless. The cost-of-living crisis has compounded the housing crisis, making Glass Door’s work more necessary than ever before.
Jo Carter, Glass Door’s CEO, said: “Sleep Out is our largest fundraising event of the year, raising vital funds to support the work we do to end homelessness in London. Every year we see all kinds of people taking part, including those with personal experience of homelessness, local businesses, and schoolchildren who want to get involved in supporting their local community and many of our volunteers. Everyone taking part, will do so in the knowledge that the number of people experiencing homelessness in London, continues to grow. Through this event, we will raise both awareness and money to provide emergency shelter and advice to those experiencing homelessness.”
