Croydon Voluntary Action is appealing for donations to help fund its winter homelessness shelter – with all donations made between now and October 12 to be doubled.
Shelter appeal: donations made in the next two weeks will be doubled, as the CVA gears up for winter
The Croydon Together Shelter supports men and women experiencing homelessness with communal bed space, showers, toiletries, nutritious meals, safe and welcoming social space and connection, alongside partnership working and casework support to try to help them end their homelessness.
Between January and April this year, the shelter provided support for 48 people.
“We are preparing for the upcoming winter season,” says CVA, the council intermediary with the third sector, based on London Road.
“At the moment we have enough funding to run for three months. Through our Big Give match-fund campaign, we are hoping to increase that to up to six months.”
CVA is using a match-funding scheme called Big Give, where any donation will be doubled: “One donation, twice the impact.”
Croydon was one of four London boroughs without a night shelter last winter.
Yet the borough also has the highest number of rough sleepers in Outer London: 469 were recorded rough sleeping in 2025, an increase of 190% in a decade.
People at risk of homelessness are also likely to face social isolation or other forms of deprivation.
This might be the kind of service which most people might expect the local authority to help to deliver. But in Croydon, the support was provided almost entirely by volunteers, rather than by paid council workers.
Decent meal: the shelter makes sure that anyone who visits get support, and some hot food
By April, the Croydon Together Shelter had 111 volunteers. “This amounted to 1,013 volunteer shifts or 3,732 volunteer hours,” according to CVA.
“This has a value of over £55,000 when calculated at the current London Living Wage of £14.80 per hour.”
Between January 22 and April 20 this year, the shelter supported 48 people – 10 women and 38 men – who stayed for at least one night. Of these people, 50% were under 35; 10% were under 25.
All of these people “are disproportionately affected by legislation and policy relating to housing, homelessness, housing benefit, Universal Credit and minimum wage”, CVA says.
According to the CVA’s figures, 35 of the 48 people who they helped last winter were supported to move on to more stable accommodation. Eight were helped to access or maintain work.
And four former visitors “expressed an interest in becoming volunteers with the project”.
CVA says: “They started by becoming ‘visitors’, socialising with new guests and shadowing experienced volunteers.
“We support people from the crisis of rough sleeping to rebuild their support networks and sustainable routes off the streets.”
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