Homelessness should never be treated as a crime.

Streets Kitchen Legal works alongside people experiencing homelessness to defend their rights, challenge injustice and fight the growing use of enforcement against people simply trying to survive in public spaces.

Now, we need your help to keep that work going.

We are raising up to £24,000 to keep our Solidarity Hub open for another year, protecting the home of our legal clinic, advocacy work and campaign against the criminalisation of homelessness.

Promises will not end homelessness. Action will.

Andy Burnham has pledged to end rough sleeping.

Considering the scale of the crisis we are facing, we welcome any commitment that brings the homelessness crisis into the national conversation. But promises alone will not protect the people sleeping on our streets today.

People are still being displaced, criminalised and abandoned by systems that are meant to protect them.

Ending rough sleeping is possible. But it requires housing, support, dignity and a commitment to human rights, not punishment and enforcement.

The repeal of the Vagrancy Act was long overdue. But removing one piece of legislation does not mean the criminalisation of homelessness has ended.

New powers introduced through the Crime and Policing Act 2026, including Respect Orders and expanded community policing powers, risk creating new routes through which people experiencing homelessness can be surveilled, displaced and punished.

At the same time, people continue to face enforcement simply for occupying public spaces, while many struggle to access the housing and support they are legally entitled to.

The answer to homelessness cannot be more policing. It cannot be more displacement. It cannot be more criminalisation of poverty.

That is what we are fighting against.

Using the law to challenge injustice

Through Streets Kitchen Legal, we support people experiencing homelessness to understand and enforce their rights.

Our legal work focuses on two core aims:

• Protecting access to statutory homelessness support

• Fighting the criminalisation of homelessness

We help people challenge barriers that can prevent them from accessing housing and support, including local authority gatekeeping and unlawful decisions.

Our work can include:

• Supporting homelessness applications and gathering evidence

• Challenging failures to provide temporary accommodation

• Challenging decisions around priority need, local connection and intentional homelessness

• Challenging unsuitable accommodation

• Escalating failures through complaints and the Local Government Ombudsman

• Taking homelessness appeals to the County Court

• Bringing Judicial Review proceedings in the High Court

Alongside individual cases, we want to challenge the wider systems that allow people experiencing homelessness to be pushed out of public spaces rather than supported.

Our Solidarity Hub needs saving

The Solidarity Hub in North London is the base for this fight.

It is home to SK Legal and provides a space where people experiencing homelessness can access legal advice, advocacy, healthcare, showers, women-only days and practical support.

But it is also somewhere we can organise, campaign and respond when people's rights are threatened.

Without the Hub, our ability to challenge injustice and fight the criminalisation of homelessness will be significantly reduced.

Keeping the space open costs us at least £2,000 every month, with costs continuing to rise.

We need your help

We are looking to raise up to £24,000 to secure the Solidarity Hub for another year.

Your donation will help us:

• Fight the criminalisation of homelessness

• Challenge unlawful treatment and local authority gatekeeping

• Provide legal support to people facing homelessness and enforcement

• Protect a vital base for campaigning, advocacy and organising

• Build greater understanding of the rights of people experiencing homelessness

Every donation is an act of solidarity, not charity.

This campaign is about making sure people experiencing homelessness have somewhere they can turn when their rights are ignored — and ensuring there is an organisation willing to challenge the systems that fail them.

Please support us and help keep the fight against the criminalisation of homelessness going.

About Streets Kitchen

For more than 10 years, Streets Kitchen has worked as a grassroots movement supporting people experiencing homelessness.

Our volunteer-led kitchens operate seven days a week across eight locations, alongside outreach, advocacy, healthcare and legal support.

Our work reaches around 1,500 people every week across London.

Some of our volunteers have themselves experienced homelessness, and our approach is built around solidarity: working alongside people rather than treating them simply as recipients of charity.

What your previous support has made possible

Support for our previous campaign helped SK Legal continue its frontline and legal work, including providing legal assistance, responding to enforcement activity, producing information about people's rights and supporting thousands of people through Streets Kitchen's wider outreach network.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us so far.

Now we need your help to secure the Solidarity Hub for another year and continue the fight to end the criminalisation of homelessness.