Who Are Crisis?

Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people. We are dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change.

Crisis was founded in 1967 in response to the shocking Ken Loach film Cathy Come Home shown the previous year, and a publicity campaign led by reforming Conservatives William Shearman and Ian Macleod highlighting the plight of homeless people.

Since then Crisis has evolved to meet the changing needs of single homeless people, campaigning for change and delivering innovative solutions to help people find a route out of their homelessness across the UK.

Over the years the landscape of homelessness has changed. At each stage Crisis has responded with a new focus and new set of services. In 1971 the lack of services for homeless people at Christmas was all too real. In response,

Crisis Christmas was set up. Today it has continued to evolve to meet the needs of over 2,000 homeless people providing companionship and access to vital services and hope for the year ahead.

Throughout the years we have piloted new projects and new ways of working and delivering services. In the 90s we launched WinterWatch, a nationwide programme of winter shelters,

Crisis FareShare, which subsequently became its own charity and Crisis SmartMove. Since 1997 Crisis SmartMove has helped house over 12,000 single people.

We have led the way in putting learning and skills development at the heart of the solution to homelessness. In 2002 we established

Crisis Skylight, now an award winning education, training and employment centre, flourishing in London and Newcastle, together with our Crisis Skylight Cafes, social enterprises that provide real on the job training. Crisis Skylight is recognised as a model of innovative best practice and we have ambitious plans to open a further seven centres by 2013, with new centres in Birmingham and Oxford already far advanced.

We continue to develop Crisis Changing Lives, our highly successful national grants scheme which helps homeless people achieve their education and career goals and have expanded our range of employment services.

Reliant on the generosity of our donors, we have come up with innovative ways to raise money such as our Crisis Christmas Card Challenge and high profile events including Crisis Consequences, Crisis Hidden Gigs and Crisis Square Mile Run. We are also fortunate in our capacity to call on the help of 10,000 volunteers to support our work throughout the year.

Throughout this time our approach has been informed by research and we have remained determined campaigners. We have not been afraid to challenge Government and society to face up to the human and financial cost of homelessness. In 2008 through our Put Rough Sleeping to Bed for Good Campaign we secured a pledge from Government and the Mayor of London to end rough sleeping by 2012. We will hold them to this pledge. We continue to highlight the growing issue of hidden homelessness in the UK and the barriers that homeless people face in trying to transform their lives.

Homelessness is an isolating and destructive experience and homeless people are some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded in our society. Homelessness is a problem throughout the UK, although it is more prevalent in urban centres, especially in London.

Homelessness is about more than rooflessness. A home is not just a physical space, it also has a legal and social dimension. A home provides roots, identity, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing. Homelessness is about the loss of these. Homelessness is costly to the individual, society and the state.

People become and stay homeless for a whole range of complex and overlapping reasons and solving homelessness is about much more than putting a roof over people's heads. Many homeless people face a number of issues in addition to, but often compounded by, their homelessness. The isolation and destructive nature of homelessness means that homeless people find it difficult to access the help they need.