At KCAH we work with single people facing housing crises in the London Borough of Kingston. Our aim is help each client find a stable home and enable them to start rebuilding their lives. We do this by offering a wide range of services which are free of charge to the service user.  Services we deliver:

• Housing Crisis Intervention Service (HCIS): An in-person, drop-in advice service for people facing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. Open weekdays from 10.00am – 1.00pm.
• The Bridge: specialist unit which allows us to work with people who use substances and have been sleeping rough or are at risk of sleeping rough.
• Supported Housing (Access Project): We offer supported housing for people who have recently experienced homelessness and are finding it difficult to access private rented accommodation. Our Resident Support Team works alongside individual residents to provide a tailored package of support.
• Winter Night Shelter: offering a warm, dry, safe place to sleep as well as an evening meal and breakfast for people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Kingston during the coldest months.

Staffed by 2 full time, 1 part time housing advisor and a volunteer HCIS is the front line of the services we offer.

Between 10am and 1pm the door is open every day of the week for new and regular people to have an ad hoc appointment.

For people who have registered with us and the process of working together has begun this is a chance to get an update on progress or drop-off documents.

For new visitors it can be a daunting moment walking through the door. It’s the admission that options are running out or that it’s time to put pride on the shelf and ask for help.

Our welcome is always warm, safe and non-judgemental, whether the person is met by one of our regular volunteers or one of the housing advisors themselves, they are guided through the registration forms, with the occasional help from a charity offering free translation services.

If the eligibility threshold is met (adult, single, connection to Kingston Borough) an initial interview is held with one of the housing advisors. It’s important to note here that the job title is slightly misleading, the role involves so much more than housing and so much more than advice, it’s advocacy, representation, signposting, administrative support and more. Other area’s of support covered by the team include benefits advice, legal assistance, medical assistance AND housing advice, advocacy, referral and representation.

As an official food bank voucher provider Tuesdays and Fridays are particularly busy as they coincide with the most local Impact Centre run by the Trussell Trust.

Afternoons take on a different form, there are still appointments (made in advance) but otherwise there is space to think, find and create connections with other services and housing providers or otherwise advocate for people who would otherwise not have a voice or the language to convey their issues in a way that creates change.

The Bridge is the evolution of a long-needed service. It is designed as a contemplative space for rough sleeping substance users, somewhere safe and unhurried where through gentle conversation people are invited to consider their substance use or, if they feel that’s not an option, a pathway into residential rehabilitation.

From the inception of the space in 2018, at the time known as the Joel Project and run by our neighbours at St Peter’s church, it has been somewhere for people with some of the most complex needs to feel safe and supported as they consider what life could look like after treatment.

The second iteration of the Joel Project or Joel, arose from a study by our now CEO outlining a gap in the triangle of the social care, physical health needs and housing issues for substance users sleeping rough. The study was presented to RBK and funding was granted from several sources allowing Joel to open again, only now under the stewardship of KCAH.

Sadly, Joel proved to be financially unviable in its offering, the reality of filling the gap with housing, support and advocacy proved to be beyond the capacity of the service and it closed.

With leftover funding from Joel and new grants allocated from departments that recognised the gap, the Bridge as we know it now was born.

With a combination of regular outreach and structured drop-in sessions offering activities and group outings, the Bridge now exists to continue offering that contemplative space and in conjunction with the other services at KCAH, work towards the goal of filling the ever-present gap is ongoing.

The Access Project, is a holistic residential support initiative dedicated to helping individuals transition from the crisis of homelessness to stable, independent living. Operating across 11 managed properties in the Kingston area, we provide a safe environment for residents to rebuild their lives through a unique, strength-based coaching model.

We believe that ending homelessness requires more than just a roof; it requires the restoration of dignity, agency, and community. Our team of dedicated Asset Coaches works one-on-one with residents to create personalized support plans. These plans are not just about administrative boxes—they are powerful, forward-looking roadmaps that focus on a resident’s existing skills and long-term aspirations, such as pursuing higher education or vocational training.

Our team delivers over 3,000 hours of direct support annually. By separating our support roles from rent and property management, our Asset Coaches can focus entirely on building trust and advocating for our residents’ wellbeing.

We empower residents through a dedicated fund designed to remove barriers to progress. Whether it is a laptop for college, a gym membership for mental health, or vocational certifications, the Asset Fund invests directly in a resident’s future.

Recognizing the “missing middle” in statutory services, we provide intensive medical advocacy. From “body doubling” at stressful GP appointments to navigating neurodiversity diagnoses (such as ADHD), we ensure our residents are never left to navigate complex healthcare systems alone.

To combat the isolation often following homelessness, we host regular group activities—ranging from boxing fitness classes led by residents to community walks and skill-building workshops, designed to widen our residents’ social circles and foster a sense of belonging.

Vision Everyone in Kingston is in a safe and stable home and is able to build a happy life

Mission We work with people in the Borough of Kingston to get and keep a safe and stable home

Values

• DIGNITY – KCAH strives to be a caring organisation that values and respects the dignity, independence and individuality of people experiencing homelessness and people at housing risk. It is committed to working with clients to achieve the best outcome for them and in such a way as to enable and empower them.
• EMPATHY – We believe in individual potential and are nonjudgmental and empathetic in the way we deal with others.
• PROFESSIONALISM – We are professional in the way we operate and determined and purposeful in the way we deal with the causes we support.
• INTEGRITY – We are accountable. We take ownership of our actions and decisions, communicate transparently and are responsible for our outcomes. We foster trust with our clients by doing what we say we will. When things don’t go according to plan, we are honest and take responsibility to improve.

Alongside our service ethos, we will seek to demonstrate these values in everything we do: from our interactions with people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, to how we treat each other as colleagues, to how we work with our partners.

KCAH was set up in 1993 by over 50 churches in the Royal Borough of Kingston. The churches recognised that there was a housing and homelessness problem in the area and that it needed to be addressed by a professional housing advice service.

26th April 1993: KCAH was registered as and unincorporated registered charity.

18th March 1999: A company was formed, limited by guarantee, to take over the activities and assets of the unincorporated charity from 1 October 1999.

2008 – 2014: The Roaming Winter Night Shelter was established. For 6 years, KCAH worked in partnership with churches across the borough, who opened their doors to host people experiencing homelessness at night, during the coldest months of the year.

December 2016: KCAH moved to offices in St Peter’s Church Hall, Norbiton.

2018: The Haven Winter Night Shelter opened as a 30-bed temporary winter shelter, hosted by several churches in Kingston, thanks to new government funding to tackle rough-sleeping in the borough. The Haven opened again between November 2019 and March 2020 and welcomed in 198 people off the streets, until we were forced to close due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

March 2020: The Resident Support Team was created to provide support for those that were housed in local hotels during the Covid-19 pandemic under ‘Everyone In’. This naturally evolved into providing support for those residents that were moved out of hotels and into local properties, either into shared accommodation (houses of multiple occupancy and one-bed flats). In an effort to streamline the support offered to the tenants within our accommodation across the board, KCAH decided to combine this supported accommodation project with the long-standing Access Project, the supported accommodation scheme run by KCAH for over two decades.

March 2021: The Joel Stabilisation Centre opened its doors – the first centre of its kind in London. Joel was designed to be a safe, supportive community for up to seven people, where they can focus on their journey to recovery, giving them the chance to break away from the self-destructive and chaotic lifestyle brought about by rough sleeping and addiction. This happened through 1:1 support from trained staff as well as group support; eating and talking together around the table; participating in structured daily activities that reflect each person’s interests and skills, such as photography, gardening, fishing and music and helping residents rediscover how to run a home; cooking healthy meals, cleaning, washing and paying bills.