For many of us, Monday, February 2, was a day of snowball fights and an extra day off work, when heavy snow paralysed the transport system and forced thousands to stay at home.

But for the homeless people in Kingston, spending the day trying to survive the plummeting temperatures would have seemed insurmountable - had it not been for a night shelter which launched that very evening.

In response to a growing concern of a lack of night-time provision for homeless people in the borough, Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness (KCAH) teamed up with seven churches to trial a month-long shelter.

During the trial, each of the seven churches including St Peter’s Church, Norbiton, and Surbiton Hill Methodist Church, opened their doors once a week and provided beds for 10 people who had been referred from KCAH.

Matt Hatton, KCAH director, said the trial had already proved to be a success and seven people had been found more permanent accommodation.

He said: “It has been a great project. All of the churches have thrown themselves into it and I think it has helped to show people that people on the street are not all drunks, drop-outs and drug addicts.”

I went to spend the evening at one of the venues, The Sons of Divine Providence in Hampton Wick, to see the shelter in action.

Ursula Harrison co-ordinates for the centre and, when I arrive, she is busy preparing the evening meal of soup, beef stew and cheesecake.

“We have been delighted to be a part of the project and a great camaraderie has developed between the people staying in the shelter and the volunteers,” she said.

“It has surprised me there has been such a wide cross section of people from different backgrounds and nationalities - it shows homelessness can happen to everyone.”

The shelter opens its doors at 8.15pm sharp and, after the evening meal is served, most churches offer a television, board games or newspapers, plus a bathroom stocked with towels and toiletries.

Matt tells me the United Reformed Church in Eden Street, Kingston, hopes to secure funding to fit a shower room for the next cycle of the project.

Sleeping bags have been provided from Milletts in Kingston and all of the volunteers have been trained in health and safety, mental health awareness and drug and alcohol awareness.

Three shifts of volunteers are on hand throughout the night until the morning when a hot breakfast is served.

Before we sit down to eat, I talk to David, 29, who is originally from Southampton but found himself in Kingston after losing his sales job and home in quick succession.

He says: “It was just a domino effect - I used to sleep at Heathrow but was moved on by the police and then found myself on the street.

“What surprised me is that it never really seemed to get me down - I just got on with it.

“You learn to pick a bus route that has a long journey so you can get an hour’s sleep and then spend your days walking around to pass the time.”

I am amazed at the coping strategies people have adopted to survive life on the street. As Al, 55, from Kingston, tells me, they quickly become second nature.

He said: “The hardest thing is trying to keep clean. I have a friend I call on every so often for a wash but you don’t want to be a pain and go from being a friend to a menace ,so you try to save a bit of money to buy a shower at a leisure centre and learn how to make yourself invisible at night so you don’t attract attention.”

Al’s heart wrenching story of life on the street started eight years ago when he got divorced, sold his house and went travelling.

While in America he fell seriously ill and needed major heart surgery.

Forced to use his savings for medical treatment, Al returned to the UK penniless and, without a home, soon found himself on the street.

“I couldn’t work because of my health and I didn’t have anywhere else to turn to,” he says. “I didn’t want to bother my two grown up children because they only have small houses and I didn’t want to be a nuisance.

“You never think it will happen to you but my life just fell apart.”

This is Al’s first night in the shelter and already he said it is a haven from the constant threat of attack or fear of trying to keep warm on the streets.

“I am so grateful I cannot even begin to tell you,” he said.

“It is terrible sleeping rough - teenagers always come and bother you and people just knock you down and don’t even acknowledge you.

“I was bamboozled with the council jargon and it seemed nobody wanted to help.”

Al has now been found sheltered accommodation in New Malden, after KCAH helped him approach the council and fill in the forms, but he has to wait three weeks before it is ready.

Matt says: “The bureaucracy people who are homeless often face is an additional barrier to them being able to participate in society.

“We hope as well as the shelter providing a place of safety we have helped people get through some of the red tape.”

Anna, 40, came to the UK three years ago from Eastern Europe and, after she was made redundant from her live-in job as a care worker, she became homeless at the start of February.

Luckily she has been able to get straight into the shelter, which she says saved her life.

“As a lone woman I was petrified of being on the street by myself. I dread to think what would have happened to me without the safety of the shelter,” she says.

So far the night shelter project has been solely run through donations from the churches, but Matt hopes to attract funding for the scheme which they plan to run again in the winter.

As Al says: “The shelter has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. It has given me a reason to believe I might have a chance of a happy future.”

Find out how you can help at kcah.org.uk

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