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Shelter works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing. We do this by giving advice, information and advocacy to people in housing need, and by campaigning for lasting political change to end the housing crisis for good.

What does Shelter do?

Help and advice:
Shelter provides free, confidential advice to people with all kinds of housing problems through our online housing information and our face to face local services.

Fighting for change:
Shelter tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies, and more investment, to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people.

Our influential campaigns bring aspects of bad housing to the attention of the media and the public, who help us fight for solutions.

Informing professionals:
As a leading expert on housing in Britain, we develop practical solutions to address the housing crisis. We also work in conjunction with the housing sector to promote good practice, publish reports, and deliver professional training.

Shelter was founded in England in 1966 by the Reverend Bruce Kenrick, who was horrified by the state of the tenements round his Notting Hill parish. The setting up of the organisation in Scotland followed in 1968.

Kenrick had formed the Notting Hill Housing Trust three years earlier to provide decent, affordable houses to rent in the area.

As slums proliferated in the inner cities, homeless families were forced into overcrowded hostels, and notorious landlords like Peter Rachman made the headlines, Kenrick saw the need for a national campaigning body to complement the work of charities providing housing. Shelter was born.