Originally written for National Theatre Connections, this one act play explores homelessness and its effects on a group of young people. Shelter is a political play but it is not the agitprop of the seventies. The anger is understated. A fragment of society is portrayed without comment and the audience is left to make up its mind about how our society causes homelessness and deals with it. The play is structured as scenes interspersed with monologues when characters reveal themselves.

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"I found Shelter a very upsetting play to write because I kept on being drawn into situations where things were intolerable. Young people leave home because they are being beaten or sexually abused or there is not enough room for them at home. And all the time legislation is making it more difficult for them to survive. The problems for the homeless include the cold, sickness, their vulnerability, the loss of dignity. But I think the worst thing must be the sheer terror inside, the fact that anybody could come up and give them a severe beating and no one would care." – Simon Bent