Shelter Reviews 22

I had issues with repairs In my property so I contacted shelter and it took me a long time to get through to someone and they said an advisor would contact me within 6/7weeks as they said they were busy so a couple weeks later an advisor called me back and they said they would help me make a complaint to the housing on my behalf and said it would take 21 days and said he would call with an update he didn’t he kept saying the housing didn’t reply to him and I asked for a face to face appointment and he said no he was too busy and it went on for 3 months and I asked for proof that he was emailing the housing and he was very rude then he eventually gave me a face to face appointment and he was very rude and said the only advice he could give was ask the housing to move me to temporary accommodation while they fix the issues and the housing refused so he said the other option was to make myself and my daughter homeless.and he asked to come to my house and referred me to a legal advice which they were not good and they said their was not enough evidence as shelter didn’t provide any emails.

I read that Shelter make a loss of over £2 million a year on their retail outlets.
So people who give to Shelter charity shops who think that they are helping the homeless are being deceived

I am disappointed with the support I received from Shelter. My housing case was closed without prior discussion, leaving me without guidance or support at a critical time. The advice and housing list provided were information I already had. It felt particularly unfair to be asked to provide feedback or share my story while my case was being closed and I was left unsupported. I hope Shelter improves communication and ensures vulnerable clients are not left abandoned.

They go by a script and don't see the person behind the phone or screen. I can't do phone calls most of the time as I'm autistic. I was left waiting for an "advisor" for 2 hours. I received a section 21 and it involved disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. I tried to explain this to the "advisor" and got sent links (I've been hyperfocused on this issue for 2 weeks, so everything he tried to link me to, I was aware of), and he was so focused on sending links and following a script. Zero empathy for a disabled family in distress. When I said I wanted to speak to their legal team I was told "I'm afraid there isn't a Shelter office near you. Good luck with resolving your situation. I hope you're able to get the support and outcome you need."

Then he disconnected the chat.

For a charity as large as theirs, this is appalling behaviour.

Shocking. Another fraud ngo set up to defraud people by immigrants to help only immigrants. No responses. Rude. Chairpeople obviously laundering funds. Not helping British homeless

Utterly useless was given very bad advice which was legally incorrect. Member of staff on the call was rude and disinterested. Wouldnt bother sitting waiting for hours to be answered

Don’t even think about working for this charity especially if you’re involved with signing up people to donate. You’ll be fired with no notice if you fail to meet their ridiculous targets. Appalling treatment of staff.

They’re not operational

You will be ignored

They do not care

They have no legal advice

Would of give a 2 or 3 but due to service i stick with a 1. The bloke i spoke too gave the best advice he could but said its a legal issue and was messed about about by the legal team from being hanged up on and then someone went through the form im entitled to get legal aid but when getting more information on why this is a legal issue they stated sorry we can't help but wont give anymore advice. Nice to know im going to be homeless but got the honour of paying rent whilst homeless as the property im living in is unlivable

Today I spoke with Joe Timoney at shelter Scotland. Such a lovely man to speak with very calming caring & knowledgeable! He provided me with lots of advice/information! In the situation I’m in Joe helped a lot and I came off the phone feeling such a relief after I spoke with! Thank you Joe I know it’s your job and that’s what you do but I honestly was at a loss and you have reassured me on a lot of things I would never have known

This charity has helped so many people I work with (I work for a different charity but have signposted to this one many times).
Staff are always knowledgeable and kind. Well done Shelter.

Awful experience with the shop assistant.
Went in to leave a donation and I was met with the upmost rudness and told she had no room for it.
No sign of not accepting donations were displayed on the shop window. Pity for the cause.

UPDATE: They called back an hour later, returned and took some of the items.
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Would give 0 if it were an option. Arranged for collection of goods from house. They ring 1/2 hr before arrival. They rang my phone for 1 ring ONLY and, as it was from a private number, I couldn't call it back. Once main Shelter No had answered my call the van had, apparently, left my area. House sale completes in 2 days and I have a house full of furniture still. DO NOT RECOMMEND USING THEM!

I am glad I checked these reviews before I made any more donations to this charity, been a regular donator, but now I have switched to a different homeless charity following the poor reviews here

HI; people mislead on purpose. I have been dealing with them since 2020. They violate human rights, they violate UK GDPR, they tell your secrets to the other party, they lie in plain sight. They deliberately don't answer the phone for days.

They twist everything you tell them, they are completely useless. Beware and don't say anything to them, don't leave your personal information.

They are not trustworthy M.B.

Terrible people.

awful service.

these people cannot be trusted.
they are liars and put themselves well before any clients.
nasty company

they have caused me so many problems with my landlord, which directly due to my eviction. I was not getting evicted for any other reason apart from Shelter.
I am taking Shelter to court because they deliberately caused a bad situation into a much worse situation.

DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE AT ALL.

you can see that they only have 1 star reviews. They are a business that takes money from the public (including myself) and only pay themselves with this money. They outsource legal work to useless solicitors that are of no benefit to anyone apart from Shelter who get financial benefits for their crappy referrals

This is my experience of the Shelter Charity, I have given it weeks to allow for peak demand but I am convinced that the issue is permanent and deliberate.

Shelter is supposed to help the homeless but it puts up an impossible barrier to getting help.

I have spend weeks trying to help someone with priority need who has a condition that makes it impossible for them to call themselves.

The Shelter website is very confusing and does not help, for example the first question does not ask you if you are actually homeless only if you have been served with an eviction notice. So it excluded those already homeless.

Of course you have to call them and this is where there seems to be a deliberate barrier, I am guessing that it is to fool the stats otherwise why would they do this.

Most organisations have a machine that answers your call, you then choose the situation you are in to get through to the right department. Some might have a DDI number so you can jump straight into a queue. All fair enough, but NOT Shelter.

What Shelter does is force you to listen to one and half minutes of out going diatribe message and then says "all of our operators are busy" and then they TERMINATE THE CALL !!!!

You can't hold, you have to redial and listen to the droning on message over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over again.

This is simply unfair and I have tried all day every day for 7 weeks, I have tried early in the morning, through the day, at lunch times, in the afternoon and later in the day. The only time I got through to anyone was when a lady said she was clearing down the queue because it was withing 30 minutes of the time that their operators go home. That was the ONLY time I actually got onto the queue.

I really do not know if anyone ever gets through.

What Shelter need to do is have the same outgoing message and then say at the end "press 1 if you are street homeless or press 2 to hear other options" so NOT terminate the call, they then need to have the machine tell the caller what position they are in the queue.

We are all used to this, my GP has me at 36th in the queue and once I called a big Gas Repair company and was in position 426 in the queue, but the queue reduced quickly.

Certainly Shelter can use the call answering machine to ask the caller some questions like

Press 1 if you are currently street homeless
Press 2 Is a Council evicting you from Temporary Accommodation
Press 3 If your Landord is trying to evict you without a statutory Section 21 or Section 8 notice.
Press 4 If you have received an eviction notice
Press 5 for anything else.

each of these options can drill down further if necessary but a caller should be able to rapidly join a queue by typing in the appropriate shortcuts, e.g. 147 and then hold for as long as it takes.

It seems that Shelter have deliberately designed the current system to prevent people from accessing their service. I know that things are bad but they are depriving the most needy and isn't aren't they the people they are supposed to be helping.

My experience date is today and has been the same for 7 weeks of trying to get through every day.

Utterly useless and biased organisation that are financed from mostly public funding as well as other dubious sources that hold the assumption all landlords are evil and that they hold the moral high ground and act in the tenants interests in whatever the manner the tenant behaves .
An utterly disgraceful organisation that needs bringing to account , I see that they are now the subject of various litigation as I speak .
Do not give them a penny !

Waste of Time They don't stay in contact with you then they lose your paper work when they should return it
they just a charity scam

They say their number is for homeless and for ppl in an emergency but I have been ringing them for 15 days now up to 10 times a day and no one answers.

Not right to have homeless ppl ringing for days. They have no home and alot of times, no access to computer.

It's cold and wet and I need their help. God help me🙏.