CRASH works solely with homelessness charities or agencies in the UK to deliver improved premises.

CRASH is the construction and property industries' charity for homeless people.

What CRASH does

CRASH aims to help homelessness charities to improve their premises, facilities and accommodation provided for homeless people. CRASH brings together the expertise and help of professionals and companies from the UK construction and property industries to assist homelessness projects to reduce construction costs.

Working with the companies that support CRASH means that charities save money, get better value for their money, or both. It also means that the charities receive professional support and guidance.

What CRASH doesn't do

CRASH does not undertake public sector projects. It does not award grants but may decide to assist with restricted funding for a renovation project, where that project could otherwise not proceed and there is an urgent need locally for the charity's services.

CRASH is unlikely to offer help to a project where the charity will have the building for less than three years after the works are completed. This is to ensure that our resources are deployed effectively.

Who benefits from CRASH

CRASH works solely with homelessness charities in the UK to deliver improved premises and, therefore, help them deliver improved services to their clients. We do not work for the public sector, although many of the charities that we work with receive some public funding to deliver their services.

We do not burden the charities with bureaucracy. It takes just one simple form to request our help. We will then assess the charity's application and decide whether we can help out. If we can help, then one of our project co–ordinators will pay a visit to the premises in question and make a fuller assessment of what is needed.

CRASH does not, however, manage the project. It is up to the charity seeking our support to manage relationships with suppliers that we introduce to them. If we were to take on full project management, then the number of projects we can assist would diminish greatly. At any one time, CRASH has around forty "live" projects across the UK and we anticipate receiving an average of four requests for help each month.

The types of project CRASH supports

CRASH covers a wide range of project types. Currently CRASH is supporting:

• Move-on accommodation
• Community centres
• Day centres
• Detox support
• Direct access hostels
• Drop in centres
• Internet café
• Night Shelter
• Offices
• Outreach support
• Short term accommodation
• Social businesses
• Support offices
• Training centre
• Building searches

Who supports CRASH

Contractors, specialist installers, building material producers, builders' merchants, property owners, interior designers, architects, surveyors and engineers combine via CRASH to provide advice and services on a largely non-profit basis – sometimes free of charge – to achieve the best use of a building at the lowest possible cost.

We believe that CRASH is a unique example of a corporate sector coming together on a charitable basis to tackle homelessness. Research conducted by Bain & Co indicates that the public believes that homelessness is second only to (children) in the issues that the corporate sector should support charitably.

CRASH is funded entirely by our Patrons from the construction and property sectors – their annual contributions cover our core costs so, all monies raised from fundraising goes directly towards the homelessness projects we help, none is spent on administration. We receive no funding from the public sector.