Campaign successes

Exempt accommodation is a form of shared housing for people with support needs.

Some rogue landlords are exploiting the system for profit while leaving people in unsafe, dangerous shared housing with little to no support.

We supported a Bill in Parliament that will bring in new laws to root out rogue landlords and protect people living in exempt accommodation.

After months of pressure from Crisis supporters, the Bill passed in Parliament and received Royal Assent in June 2023 - a huge campaign win!

This will transform the lives of thousands of people facing homelessness in England.

Find out more about our Regulate the Rogues campaign.

Since 1824, the Vagrancy Act has made it a crime just to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. People sleeping rough could face police action and a fine of up to £1,000.

We've campaigned to repeal the Vagrancy since the 1990s, but in 2022, we finally did it!

In February 2022, after thousands of Crisis supporters contacted their MP, emailed Government ministers, and shared the campaign online, MPs voted to make repeal a matter of law. This means that, when the legislation comes into effect, sleeping rough will no longer be a crime in England and Wales.

Find out more about the Scrap the Act campaign and how we're standing against government plans that could criminalise homelessness by the back door.

Changes to the Immigration Rules published in October 2020 made rough sleeping grounds for refusing or cancelling a person's permission to remain in the UK. Over 44,500 people signed our petition and over 75 organisations joined our call to the UK Government to drop these cruel plans to punish people experiencing homelessness.

Success: While we didn't manage to prevent these rules from coming into force, public pressure played an important role in ensuring that the Home Office provided guidance that the policy should only be used in limited circumstances.

In May 2021, Crisis, along with over 65 other organisations, released a joint statement condemning the UK Government's plans.

We worked with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ending Homelessness on A Safe Home, a campaign calling for the Domestic Abuse Bill to ensure people fleeing domestic abuse in England are able to go to their council and be offered a safe, permanent home.

Success: In May 2020, the UK Government announced that it will amend the Domestic Abuse Bill so that anyone made homeless in England as a result of domestic abuse will have a legal right to housing.

The Domestic Abuse Bill received royal assent in April 2021, and the law change has now come into force.

Find out more about A Safe Home campaign.

Through our Cover the Cost campaign, we'd been calling for the UK Government to invest in housing benefit so that it covers the cost of rents.

Success: In March 2020, the UK Chancellor announced that housing benefit would be uprated to cover at least the cheapest third of rents for 12 months in order to prevent homelessness in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more about the Cover the Cost campaign.

The Scottish Government announced a life-changing alteration to the Unsuitable Accommodation Order in response to our Life in Limbo campaign. Our members with lived experience of homelessness, and supporters who contacted their MSPs and responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on the law change, were instrumental in winning this campaign.

Success: The legislation is to become effective in 2021, meaning no one in Scotland should have to live in unsuitable temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs, for more than seven days.

In 2017 Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, established the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) to identify the actions needed to end homelessness in Scotland. The HARSAG group was chaired by Crisis Chief Executive Jon Sparkes and its work produced recommendations for Scottish Government. In response to these recommendations, Scottish Government adopted a five-year high level action plan to end homelessness, which includes many recommendations from Crisis' plan to end homelessness.

Success: The Scottish Government became the first government in Great Britain to produce a plan to end homelessness in all its forms.

Private renting is often the only option for many homeless people but many are locked out because they can’t afford the deposit, can’t find a landlord willing to let to them or don’t get the support they need.

Success: Together with the National Landlord Association, the Residential Landlords Association and thousands of our supporters, we convinced the Chancellor to help homeless people rent.

The Autumn 2017 Budget included £20 million for Help To Rent projects to support homeless people, vulnerable tenants and their landlords.

Rough sleeping in England had doubled since 2010, so when the snap general election was announced, we joined with Centrepoint, Homeless Link, Shelter and St Mungo’s to call on every party in England to end it.

Success: All the major parties committed to ending rough sleeping in England, with the Conservative government’s manifesto pledging to halve it by 2022 and end it by 2027.

Later that year, the Government committed £28 million to pilot a new approach solving rough sleeping known as Housing First and launched a Homelessness Reduction Taskforce

Under the law in England homeless people who approach their council were often turned away with little or no help.

Success: Thanks to the Crisis' No One Turned Away campaign and the backing of 80,000 supporters, partner charities and politicians of all parties we got the biggest change to England’s homelessness laws in 40 years.Â

The Homelessness Reduction Act, was a private member’s bill tabled by Bob Blackman MP and passed with £61 million of funding in May 2017.

Find out more about the impact the Homelessness Reduction Act is having.

There was a real danger the Government would cut the grant it gives to councils to prevent homelessness.

Success: Together with thousands of our supporters who emailed their MP as part of our No One Turned Away campaign, we saved the Homelessness Prevention Grant, and the Government said they would also look at what more they could do to prevent homelessness.

Crisis and Shelter intervened in a long running challenge to the way councils decide who is 'vulnerable' enough for housing help.

Success: The Supreme Court ruled that single homeless people no longer have to prove they are particularly vulnerable compared to other homeless people in order to qualify for support.

Revenge evictions happen when tenants get evicted for simply asking their landlord to fix poor or dangerous living conditions, leaving them potentially facing homelessness.

Success: Crisis played a key role in supporting a campaign led by Shelter that resulted in the Government passing a law to make revenge evictions illegal.Â

Crisis joined dozens of charities to challenge government plans to cut funds for Local Welfare Assistance - grants that let those living in poverty cover unexpected expenses like fixing a broken cooker.Â

Success: Ministers allocated an extra £74 million “to assist [councils] in dealing with pressures on local welfare and health and social careâ€Â.

We argued that the Immigration Bill – which required landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants – would cause problems for homeless people who do not have access to documents like a passport to prove their identity.

Success: We achieved a number of concessions from the Government before the Bill was passed. Â

Our research showed that homeless people die 30 years before the national average, at just 47. Crisis was one of several charities to demand NHS reforms that take homeless people's health needs seriously.

Success: In 2013 the Government announced that 52 homelessness projects have been awarded a share of £10 million to ensure homeless people receive better help once they leave hospital.

A Crisis campaign to stop government removing housing benefit for under 25 year olds.

Success: The campaign prevented the cut going ahead in 2012, protecting hundreds of thousands of young people from the risk of homelessness (and was "highly commended" at the Charity Times Awards 2013).

We're calling on the Government to strengthen the law so that no one is forced to sleep rough.

Success: Over 100 MPs signed a parliamentary motion calling for change. The government recognised there was a problem and announced £20milllion funding to tackle single homelessness.

Crisis and other organisations campaigned to stop government plans for a 10% cut in housing benefit for anyone on Jobseekers' Allowance for more than a year.

Success: The Government announced they would drop the cut from the Welfare Reform Bill.

We campaigned against the extension of the Shared Accommodation Rate (a lower rate of housing benefit) to under 35 year olds.

Success: We won an exemption for people who have formerly been homeless and have lived in a homeless hostel for more than three months.Â

A joint campaign run by Crisis, Citizens Advice, Chartered Institute of Housing and Shelter calling on the Government to introduce new legislation to protect tenants whose landlords are repossessed.

Success: New primary legislation was introduced giving tenants some breathing space to find somewhere else to live.

Together with other homelessness charities, Crisis called on the Government and London mayoral candidates to commit to end rough sleeping by 2012.

Success: Government set out their ambition to end rough sleeping by 2012, along with a new package of measures, backed by £200 million of investment. All three main London mayoral candidates agreed that rough sleeping should be eradicated from London by 2012.