Caritas and the Vale Douzaine have received delivery of two sleeping pods, which look to help Guernsey’s homeless.
The charity had received funding from ‘The Big Skipton Sleepout‘ which took place earlier this year, and had a successful planning application approved for the installation in September.
Now the pods are here, and in place, Caritas Chair, Graham Merfield, said: “We’re really pleased to finally get delivery of the two emergency sleeping pods. We’ve been working on this project for probably six months now! We were fortunate to raise funds at the Big Skipton Sleep Out earlier in the year, and we decided we wanted to do something to support people in the short term.
“Knowing that there are people that unfortunately don’t have shelter through the winter, we thought this was a great idea to provide some short term accommodation for people.”
Mr Merfield added that Guernsey is in the dark about the true number of people living homeless, but if demand is high, the charity could look at purchasing more of the emergency shelters.
“There definitely will be usage, we don’t know how much, because, unfortunately, rough sleeping is hidden in Guernsey. We will see how many people come forward to use them, but they definitely will have a use, and if there’s more demand than we can fulfill, we will buy more pods!”
Mr Merfield was asked if these emergency seven night shelters were the answer to tackling Guernsey’s struggles in providing for the hidden homeless. He said it’s not going to solve the problem.
“I think it’s part of the answer. So this provides short term accommodation while we find some better solutions for people long term but we were really fortunate that Northern Trust supported us to buy these pods so it gives us more funds available if we need to do more.”
Mr Merfield said that anyone questioning whether to enquire about using the shelters should contact the charity directly.
“Please get in touch with us. We’ll provide shelter and we’ll provide support for you. To help you move to the next stage.”
The pods are a creation of Amazing Grace Spaces, a Newport based charity. Stuart Johnson, Operations Manager, said the shelters are designed for short term accommodation.
“They’re fully insulated. A timber frame with full installation. Walls, floors, ceiling, the lot! From that, it took us 18 months to get them finalised, basically because we had to get them past health and Safety, Fire Marshals, Fire Protection, the insurance companies.
“We put everything into them that people asked us to. So they’re fire retarded on the outside and they’re fully fire retarded on the inside. They have a solid fire checked door, with a 30 minute standard.
“They have electronic codes, so they haven’t got to worry about keys or key cards. They’re normally programmed with their date of birth or something like that. Then inside, you’ve just got a bed, you’ve got a light, you’ve got a phone charger, which is important, and the chemical toilet, and they’re completely self contained. One has a solar panel on the roof with battery pack and charger inside, and the other one plugs into that.”
Mr Johnson said the idea for the emergency shelters came from helping people elsewhere.
“It started some time ago, from Newport in South Wales. We’ve run night shelters, we’ve got supported housing, etc, and we’ve also done module housing in Wales, and this came about from an idea that we couldn’t get everybody into a night shelter.
“Sadly, some people are excluded because of their mental health or their addictions, and they can’t be around a lot of people, so it had been nagging me for a long time. We had our training and mentoring program at the time, and building modular homes. A lot of the guys had been in prison, now homeless, had done the circuit as they say, and basically we just started from there.
“I’ve got no experience (with sleeping homeless), no experience at all, praise God, I’ve got nothing. I thought we needed heaters, we thought they needed storage hangers somewhere. But they basically went through ‘no storage because contraband could be hidden, no hooks or anything other than plastic, because they could attempt suicide’, and if it was too nice, and it’s a fine line to walk, they would class it as being home.
“This is the first rung on the ladder in getting people that have disengaged from society to re-engage and get them settled, and then move in to their own accommodation and get them settled.”
When asked what he would say to someone considering sleeping in one of the emergency shelters, but not quite fully convinced, Mr Johnson said: “People have told us that have used them, it saved their life, because it’s got so cold, wet, it’s helped people to settle down, get a good night’s sleep.
“With a good night’s sleep you’re easier to work with, you look at things different. So I would just say, try it, see what it’s like, and it’s better than being in a car park or a doorway or in a tent.”
Islanders will soon get another chance to raise awareness and funds for those sleeping rough locally, with another Big Skipton Sleep Out planned for 2026.
It was at 2025’s event when St Martins Parish Rector, the Reverend Daniel Foote, saw the pods through some digital ‘divine inspiration’.
“I was trying to sleep at the Big Skipton Sleep Out, and struggling because I was cold and wet and grossly underprepared, and I was reflecting on how incapable I was of actually holding coherent thought during that time because I was too was too cold and too wet.
“It struck me how much people that face this challenge day in day out must struggle. As I had that thought, I went on to social media myself and an advert for Amazing Grace Spaces appeared. I’d never seen them before, so it was fantastic. I looked into it, did some research, and the following day, said to the rest of Trustees, we must definitely do this. The trustees jumped straight on board and said, “that’s a wonderful solution”, and after 10 months of work, here we are.”
Reverend Foote added that anyone sleeping rough locally should get in contact, and get a good nights rest.
“I think one of the basic needs of human life is shelter, and without shelter, we struggle beyond struggle, and especially as winter coming up. Unfortunately for Guernsey, at the moment, there’s 1,000 people that are struggling with accommodation issues, and so we expect that these will be used quite a lot.”
He added that if any organisations would like to support the Emergency Shelter project, they should get in touch with Caritas.
“In fact, we think two is not enough, and it’s quite likely we’ll need more in the very near future. So if any organisation sees this and thinks ‘Actually, I’d like to get on board, I’d like to help’ do! Reach out to us. We’d be thrilled to hear from you.”
If you’d like to sign up for The Big Skipton Sleep Out 2026, you can do so HERE.