Support for emergency accommodation in Buckinghamshire

At Wycombe Homeless Connection, we know that emergency accommodation is a critical part of an effective and compassionate response to rough sleeping.

We have a strong track record of providing emergency accommodation having run 15 winter night shelters, hosted in church venues in and around High Wycombe, across nearly 20 years. Hundreds of volunteers join our small staff team to run the project safely. Alongside giving people a safe place to sleep in the coldest months, experiencing a period of being settled and supported living often means our guests can focus on resolving their homelessness. In 2026, 32 people stayed in our winter night shelter 19 of whom have already been helped to find a home and we continue to work with the rest of our guests to secure safe, sustainable housing.

Emergency accommodation is short-term housing for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It provides immediate safety and stability during a housing crisis, offering a safe place to stay while longer-term housing options are explored. Emergency accommodation can include hostels, supported housing, night shelters, or placements arranged through a local authority or homelessness charities. It is often the first step in preventing rough sleeping and helps people access the support they need to move towards more secure accommodation. People who are offered places in emergency housing usually have few, if any options and would likely be sleeping on the street.

WHC works in High Wycombe and across south Buckinghamshire where homelessness is a persistent and often hidden issue, despite the county’s affluent reputation. Locally, provision of emergency accommodation remains significantly below levels seen in other parts of the country, and falls far short of what is needed to ensure that people who are sleeping rough have access to safe shelter when they need it most.

Therefore, in principle, WHC will be supportive of planning applications and projects that seek to provide or improve high-quality emergency accommodation for people who are sleeping rough, or at imminent risk of doing so. And part of our role is to make sure the needs and preferences of the people we serve are considered in developing local services that seek to serve them.

Our support of the development of emergency accommodation is grounded in our knowledge and experience that increasing the availability of appropriate, well-managed emergency accommodation helps ends people’s homelessness, making it both necessary and urgent. We will be strongly supportive of approaches that are integrated with trauma-informed and people-centred support services like ours, and designed to promote safety, dignity, and long-term recovery.

At the time of writing, our 2026 Winter Night Shelter has just closed for the season. Planning is already underway for the 2027 shelter season and our vital year-round services continue to support people across South Buckinghamshire. These include Plug-In, our weekly drop-in for people sleeping rough, our support centre for wide ranging advice and practical support, our homelessness prevention helpline and drop-ins, our housing legal advice clinic, and our outreach work.