About Shelter

Shelter has worked for over 30 years towards its vision - that everyone should be able to live in a decent and secure home that they can afford, within a socially mixed neighbourhood where people feel safe, can work and fulfil their potential.

Every year Shelter helps well over 100,000 homeless and badly housed people. Through Shelterline and its network of over 50 housing aid centres and projects, Shelter provides free, professional and independent advice to anyone with a housing problem.

Shelter believes it is unacceptable that so many people suffer the misery of homelessness and that others are living in homes that are unsafe, are in disrepair or are insecure. This is damaging to individuals, families and neighbourhoods and has enormous social and economic costs that affect us all.

Shelter has two aims. One is to provide practical support and innovative solutions for anyone who is homeless or who has a housing problem. The second is to use the evidence gathered from this work to bring about long-term changes that reduce homelessness and housing problems.

Shelter recognises that it can only achieve these aims through effective management, promoting equality of opportunity and by safeguarding its integrity and independence.

Our history

In November 1966 the BBC broadcast a drama documentary "Cathy Come Home", depicting the devastating effects of homelessness on a family's life.

A few evenings later, On December 1, Shelter was launched in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London with the support of the British Churches Housing Trust, the Catholic Housing Aid Society, Christian Action and the Housing Trust.

The new charity and the film quickly became linked in the mind of a nation that had become aware of terrible housing conditions.

1960s
Shelter initially concentrated its emergency operation in four areas of acute need: Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and London. It worked closely with housing associations to increase housing provision and improve what was already there. It established a commitment to innovative projects, which remains a key element of its work today, rapidly developing a reputation for hard-hitting campaigns. The first Shelter Week was held in 1968. Shelter's "Face the Facts" campaign drew attention to the fact that there were far more homeless people than were officially acknowledged.

1970s
The 1970s saw an increase in homelessness and the start of cuts in council house building. The Shelter Housing Aid Centre (SHAC) was opened in London to give free housing aid and advice, the first of what has become a network of housing aid centres nationwide. Shelter played a crucial role in the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act, which gave certain categories of homeless people the right to rehousing. It also produced its first report on the scandal of housing homeless families in bed and breakfast hotels, the beginning of a long-term campaign to end the use of this kind of temporary housing.

1980s
During the 1980s Shelter expanded its range of projects, establishing schemes dealing with various aspects of housing and homelessness. In 1980 a project called Homebase (later First Key) was set up to offer support to young people leaving care. The decade was dominated by lobbying against government moves to reduce protection for vulnerable people. The 1986 Social Security Act's reduction of benefits for young people soon led to Shelter's "Give us a Break" campaign culminating in a vigil at Westminster. In this year Shelter also held their first ever conference on Women And Homelessness.

1990s
Mortgage repossessions quickly became one of the big homelessness issues of the 1990s. In 1990 Shelter, with funding from the Department of the Environment, launched the National Homelessness Advice Service with the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux.

In 1998 Shelter launched Shelterline, supported by BT and many other businesses, trusts and individuals. The first service of its kind, Shelterline provides a free, national, 24-hour helpline throughout Britain. Calls are answered by expert advisers who have the necessary information through its ground-breaking information system to help with a wide range of housing problems in England, Scotland and Wales.

At the end of the 1990s the government announced its intention to publish a green paper on housing - a vital campaigning opportunity for Shelter.