Two decades of fighting homelessness
Over the last 20 years, CRASH has supported homelessness charities to build and renovate shelters and hostels for the most vulnerable people in society. In its early beginnings, founder Tony Denison saw an unacceptable number of people sleeping on the streets in London while countless office buildings stood empty. With his background in construction, Tony had the skills, contacts, and knowledge to galvanise the support of the sector and property owners to re-fit these vacant buildings as temporary shelters for homelessness charities to offer support for the homeless men women of the capital.
Since then, more and more patron companies from the construction sector have donated their vital support to homelessness charities via CRASH to create permanent, safe spaces for the people they help.
The future of CRASH: helping hospices as well as homelessness charities
CRASH announced at the end of 2015 that, as well as continuing its work for homeless people into 2016, they will be extending their services to benefit hospices. In the UK, there are over 200 adult hospices and 40 children’s hospices looking after people with life-limiting illnesses, and many of these are in urgent need of rebuilding or refurbishment. One of CRASH’s first projects will be to rebuild St Michael’s Hospice in Hastings, which was destroyed tragically in an arson attack.
Like homelessness charities, hospices do crucial work to support people at their most vulnerable. The environments in which they do this have a huge impact on the wellbeing of both residents and carers. CRASH is committed to expanding its beneficiary base to include hospices to provide modern, high-quality accommodation to more people in need.
