Hackney residents are being invited to spend a night sleeping outside next week to raise money for a local night shelter which relies on community fundraising for more than half of its income.
Hackney Night Shelter’s annual Sleep Out will take place on Friday 9 October, with participants spending the night outdoors at St John at Jerusalem Church before a fried breakfast the following morning.
Director Mark Palframan said the charity, Hackney Doorways, relies on local support to keep its year-round service running.
He told the Citizen: “More than half our money comes from the community. We depend on people’s support.”
The remainder comes from grants, which Palframan said can be time-consuming to apply for.
Money raised through the Sleep Out will contribute towards the shelter’s running costs, including overnight staff and food. Its utility bills are also expected to increase.
Twenty beds
The shelter currently provides 20 beds – seven occupied by women and 13 for men – and takes referrals from other homelessness services.
It describes itself as a low-support service, aimed at people who are able to live relatively independently.
Residents are initially offered 28 nights, but staff said they are not normally required to leave until they have somewhere else to go.
Palframan said more than half of residents currently have jobs, most working in security, hospitality, and cleaning.
“We take referrals, and hope to prevent people living without accommodation,” he said.
“It’s calm here.”
Staff estimate that around a third of residents go on to move into private-rented accommodation, another third into supported accommodation such as the YMCA, and the remainder into other arrangements including Home Office accommodation, community projects, or returning to friends and family.
Rising homelessness
The fundraising comes as Hackney continues to experience high levels of homelessness.
Government figures show 32.8 households per 1,000 were living in temporary accommodation in Hackney in March, compared with 21.1 in London – the third-highest rate among the capital’s boroughs.
Hackney Council recorded 4,181 households approaching it as homeless in 2024/5, 72 percent more than in 2018, although the figure was down five percent on the previous year.
Rough sleeping has also risen in the borough.
Data from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), cited by Crisis, showed a 56 percent increase in the number of people recorded sleeping rough in Hackney between January and March 2026 and the same period in 2025.
Women’s shelter
The charity previously ran a women-only shelter in Hackney, but closed it in 2025 after problems with the building.
Staff said they raised money for a new women’s shelter last year but have yet to find suitable premises.
The proposed service would differ from the existing shelter by allowing women to seek urgent accommodation without first being assessed and referred by another homelessness agency.
Palframan said: “One thing I would like us to be able to do is open a much more frontline shelter.
“Here we wait for them to be assessed and referred in. In my vision, it would be a real emergency shelter. It could just take anyone, that kind of traditional night shelter.”
He said there was a “desperate need” for emergency accommodation for women, pointing to the closure in June 2025 of The Sanctuary at The Marylebone Project, a 24-hour drop-in centre for women experiencing crisis, rough sleeping or domestic abuse.
Prevention
Lu Maitra, the shelter’s community engagement coordinator, said that while they try to be a preventative service, many of their residents, particularly the women, have experienced homelessness before they arrive.
“Most have a history of some rough sleeping. But it’s short, very short.”
The charity is looking for premises of any kind and says local businesses have previously helped bring buildings up to a suitable standard.
“We’ve got the resources,” Palframan said.
He said that they have camp beds, bedding, and cookware.
“So with a building, either short term, just over the winter, or longer, we would be ready.”
Thirty years
The shelter has been operating in Hackney for around 30 years and brings together people from different countries and backgrounds.
Palframan said his aim was for homelessness to be a short episode in residents’ lives, rather than something that becomes part of their identity.
“I always say ideally they will move on and forget about it and then it’ll just be an unfortunate moment in their lives,” he said.
Real community
But while they are at the shelter, he said, residents can find much that they may otherwise lack.
“It’s quite sad, really, because this is a group of people that, here, have a real community. Often before this, and afterwards, they don’t have such a community.
“Here, it’s a lot of people from different countries, different backgrounds, and… I say it’s like some kind of crazy dinner party.”
The shelter has more than 200 volunteers, and a lot of local businesses provide support, including helping to adapt premises for its services.
Palframan attributed that support to what he described as an “open patriotism about the neighbourhood”.