Shelter (charity)

Shelter (charity)

Shelter is a registered charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing in England and Scotland. It gives advice, information and advocacy to people in need, and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people. It works in partnership with Shelter Cymru in Wales and the Housing Rights Service in Northern Ireland

Shelter helps people in housing need by providing advice and practical assistance, and fights for better investment in housing and for laws and policies to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people. Approximately two thirds of Shelter's expenditure goes on housing aid and one third on campaigns and education.

'==History== Shelter was launched on 1 December 1966,In scotland 1988 evolving out of the work on behalf of homeless people then being carried on at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. A major spur to the setting up of the charity was the public outcry and calls for action which followed the transmission in November 1966 of the BBC television play "Cathy Come Home" – written by Jeremy Sandford and directed by Ken Loach – which highlighted the plight of the homeless in Britain. The social campaigner Des Wilson, having seen the programme, became pivotal in setting up Shelter.

Unusually for a charity, in 2008 Shelter saw strike action by its staff in response to changes being made to their terms and conditions.