Target reached!
You can help this project to raise more and reach its stretch target.
Free Storage for People Experiencing Homelessness
London, England, United Kingdom
Cost of Living Boost
Donations to our project will be matched by the Cost of Living Boost up to the value of £250 to help us tackle the cost of living crisis.
Please note only one donation per supporter will be matched by the Cost of Living Boost. View the Terms & Conditions.
Aim
We are the only provider of free, accessible and safe storage for people experiencing homelessness in the UK.
If you had to leave your home today, what would you take?
Everyday people are having to make that choice. We’re Street Storage: the only provider of free, accessible and safe storage for people experiencing homelessness in the UK. We’ve been operating since 2019 with two sites in London, with growing interest to expand to other cities.
The Reality of Homelessness Right Now
London saw a 21% rise in rough sleepers between April and September 2022 (figures from the Greater London Authority). At Street Storage we’re seeing this first hand with 90 requests to store with us made between August and October, compared to 170 in the whole of 2021! Whilst the highest proportion of people we see are street sleepers, people experience homelessness in many ways and currently, we’re storing for around 200 individuals.
What We Do
We welcome people sleeping out, sofa surfers, people staying in shelters/squats, care leavers, prisoners and those fleeing violent home situations. Once someone is referred we work with them one-to-one to assess their situation and agree a plan for their storage, as well as discussing other support they need to break the cycle of homelessness. For some we’re a friendly face and supportive ear, a place to wash, charge their phone and have a hot drink. For others, our support is an essential part of addressing and responding to wider circumstances and barriers in their lives.
Why We Need Your Support Now
Your donation, which is matched by Aviva up to the value of £250, will cover:
- New shelves and lockers – more demand means we’re needing to create more space within the sites we have.
- Transport costs – in some cases, we pay for people to bring their belongings to us, and then deliver them back once they’ve found suitable accommodation.
- One-to-one support – we offer this to every person who stores with us.
- Cost of living response – more people are coming to us in full time or part time employment and still sleeping outside. Our support ranges from helping them pay for travel costs to get to and from work, to applying for emergency individual grants.
“If it weren’t for you I’d probably be dead” – the actual words from T, now housed, on collecting his belongings from us. We prevented him from losing everything - physically and emotionally.
Aviva Cost of Living Boost has provided £5,275 of match funding
Aviva Community Fund has provided £814 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 2nd February 2023