The Basingstoke Night Light Winter Shelter was set up 10 years ago and is run by an ecumenical team of volunteers from churches of all denominations across the town. It’s open from the beginning of December to the end of February each year to bring hope and comfort to those without a home in the coldest months of the year. The shelter is open seven nights a week from 7pm to 7.30am, offering a hot meal and a bed for the night as well as a friendly face and a listening ear.
The volunteer team at the shelter is rotated around six different churches in the town including several from our diocese. Many local churches in our diocese also provide volunteers for the shelter, including All Saints, Basingstoke Church, Christ the King, the Parish of Basingstoke Down, St Andrews Sherborne St John, St Gabriel Popley, St John the Baptist in Andover, St John the Evangelist Hook, St Leonards’s Church Sherfield on Loddon, St Leonard’s Oakley, St Mark’s Kempshott, St Mary’s Eastrop, St Mary’s, Old Basing, St Paul’s Church, Tadley, St. Peters Church Farnborough, and Christ Church Chineham.
Project Co-ordinator David Grant says those who come along are welcomed as guests. “We provide space for up to 12 guests, and we call them guests very deliberately because we don’t want them to be service users or clients or anything like that. We want them to feel they’re welcomed into church spaces and that the church is blessing them.
“What we provide is not palatial, it’s not super comfortable, but they really appreciate it because the alternative for many of them would be sleeping in a tent or sleeping under a bridge or something like that, and they’ll get bitterly cold. It’s warm, it’s dry and it’s a safe space. They talk about us being lifesavers and they’re grateful because they know what the alternative would be.”
Guests are referred by the local council and other support agencies. Around 150 volunteers ranging in age from their 20s to their 80s, and of all faiths and none, give up their time to help. At least 6 volunteers are needed each night, along with a catering team, so there are people there to chat, listen or to play games.
Alby Nyateka is volunteering for the first time this year. She said, “I just felt the calling to do something else, to step out of my comfort zone, and to help others. In life, it’s so easy to be focused on just you. We all go through struggles and you forget that there’s always someone else going through their struggles and I wanted to help. You speak to some of them and think, ‘I don’t know how you’re still able to smile after everything that you’ve gone through’ so, it gives me hope and strengthens me as well. I hope that by me being here and talking to them, it helps to take their minds off things and be in a space where they feel safe, comfortable and joyful.”
Before the guests arrive, there’s a time of prayer. When a guest comes for the first time they are given a welcome pack, which includes a Good News for Everyone New Testament.
David Grant added, “In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus talks about ‘whatever you do to one of the least of these brothers, you do it for me’, and he specifically mentions people in prison, people who are hungry, people who are naked and need clothing. So, I think it’s a real outpouring of the Gospel for us to provide this kind of service.
“If we’re asked, we’ll explain why we do it and we’ll be quite upfront about it. We’re doing it because we think that’s what Jesus would do. Jesus didn’t have much time for the religious people in his day, did he? He spent most of his time with the outcasts and people who were on the fringes of society so, I’m sure that Jesus would very much approve of what we’re doing.”
The Night Light Winter Shelter is funded by grants from the council as well as donations from churches and individuals.
Volunteer Michael Monaghan is helping for the second year. He said, “Each person typically has a traumatic story and it’s quite brutal at times. We’re not counsellors, so we can’t do anything apart from listen and be kind and pray for them and hope that they get opportunities to get a place to stay in the future. Because they’re looked after through the shelter during the winter and they’re away from the cold, it gives them a bit of time to think and to engage with local services. A lot of people got off the streets last year and were housed.”
The shelter offers the guests space to address some of the challenges they are facing and an opportunity to access support. Last year the shelter welcomed 36 people and 19 were helped into accommodation before the project closed.
Fred has been coming to the shelter since it started at the beginning of December. He commented, “People feel safe here. It’s like a platform where you can easily settle in and jump into a better place. It offers that kind of opportunity for people to get organised, such as those who are not sleeping properly, homeless or maybe not properly housed. They come here when it’s cold and it’s wintertime and they can actually get on their feet.”
