Summer Newsletter 2026

Together we can do more for those in need

This newsletter carries a reassuring title: Together. We come together at Christmas for a vital season of fundraising. Last year, as every year, we were so grateful for your generosity.

Through your kindness, many people who were at risk of homelessness, or experiencing it, have got the help they’ve needed to find a safe place to call home.

This year, 2026, marks the hundredth St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity Christmas broadcast with the BBC. Every year, the Christmas broadcast attracts the funds needed to make a significant impact on the lives of a great number of people who are experiencing homelessness.

Gary is one of nearly 2,500 people we helped with an emergency grant. His grant helped him secure a stable home. Turn to page 4 to read more about how vital that support was to Gary. You’ll also find an update from Mensah*, who was helped out of homelessness thanks to support from The Connection at St Martin’s.

Every donation you make helps people like Gary and Mensah. And monthly gifts are vital to our capacity to provide essential support throughout the year. Knowing what’s coming in helps us plan what we can send out, in grants or for frontline work. If you feel you can help in this way, there’s a form enclosed with your newsletter.

I hope you will enjoy reading Together and seeing how your compassion is helping to change lives, every day.

Thank you so much again for your generosity and support.

Rev’d Dr Sam Wells

St Martin-in-the-Fields Trustee, St Martin’s Charity

Your support in action

We make sure that your donations go where they are most needed to help people experiencing or at risk of homelessness:

Last year, our Emergency Grants – previously known as the Vicar’s Relief Fund (VRF) – helped thousands of people when they were facing the immediate threat of becoming homeless.

We provided 2,479 emergency grants that prevented or alleviated homelessness. The total spent on Emergency Grants last year was £1,036,294*.

In 2025-26, 702 frontline workers attended free training through our training programme, enabling them to develop additional skills in their roles. This means better outcomes for the people they work with.

Your donations helped bring 1,358 frontline workers together at events and conferences, and helped make sure we could hear from 1,320 frontline workers through our annual survey, which is a vital source of insight, reflection and direction for the year to come.

Thanks to you, we were able to start two exciting new programmes, which you’ll read about in your newsletter.

Thank you You make work like this possible

To donate call free 0800 082 82 84, visit smitfc.org/together or complete and return your personalised form sent with this newsletter

*You’ll see that in the financial year April 2025 to March 2026, our Vicar’s Relief Fund – or Emergency Grant – awarded around half as many grants as in 2024-25 (2,479, 49.9%) and had around half the spend (£1,036,294, 51.8%) of 2024-25. That reduction is due to a change in eligibility criteria from April 2025.

Cover photo © Steven Landles

Creating a safe place to call home

Your support means the world to people like Gary

As you might remember, Gary’s experience of homelessness made a serious impact on his mental health. His relationship had broken down and he was devastated after the death of his brother. For a while he moved between B&Bs, and he told us that the stress and constant upheaval took a toll on him.

With help from Audrey, from his local housing support team, Gary applied for an Emergency Grant. That grant – provided thanks to the generosity of people like you –allowed him to move into his own flat.

And 15 months later he’s still there, and doing well. Gary told us,

“The grant helped me move forward and transform my life. Things like this don’t happen to people like me every day. I’ve begun creating a place I can finally call home. Having my own space has given us more time to think and do things for myself and to spend time with my children.”

Thank you for helping more people like Gary find their feet and build a more hopeful future.

“The support I received helped me realise that there are people out there who genuinely want to support me and care about my wellbeing.”

Mensah

Mensah – stable and settled

Mensah received support from The Connection, our street homelessness partner working in London. As you might remember from our Christmas appeal, Mensah managed to hold down a full-time job while sleeping on the streets. With support from The Connection, he found a stable place to live and successfully applied for an apprenticeship.

When we caught up with him, he said,

“I’m just so happy and grateful that I found out about The Connection. I’m looking forward to getting my life back on track. And being able to live life without having to worry about homelessness.”

Thank you for everything you do to help people like Gary and Mensah when they need it most.

Heather, Grants Manager

When listening becomes action

How you are supporting innovative ways to help people experiencing homelessness

One of the ways we work to ensure everybody has a safe place to call home is by listening to our frontline workers. They work directly with people who are either experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

In our 2025 Frontline Worker Survey, 83% of frontline workers said that they found it difficult to access housing that meets the needs of the people they support, with over half (55%) telling us that this situation has worsened in the last year.

As one charity worker in Manchester put it:

“It isn’t enough to find housing, it needs to be the right placement, somewhere the person feels safe and able to take the next steps in their life such as processing their experiences with specialist support, accessing education and employment, and being part of a community.”

We created our new Access to Accommodation Fund in response to these findings.

Through this new fund, we have dedicated over £620,000 to support smaller, community-based charities that are developing new ways to either create or unlock accommodation in their local area.

Each of the eight projects supported through the Fund offers a different approach to creating safe, stable housing for people experiencing homelessness. The projects cover a range of approaches, including move-on accommodation, modular housing, refugee hosting, emergency refuge and support for women with no recourse to public funds. Following the success of this round of funding, we have also committed a further £300,000 to support projects across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Thank you so much for everything you do to support funds like this one –helping more people find a safe place to call home.

To find out more, go to: smitfc.org/access-toaccommodation-fund

Sophie, Emergency Grants team

You’re helping people find a home - and keep it

Research and engagement with frontline workers shows that people experiencing homelessness often need practical support that is hard to fund, such as essential household items, equipment to manage a home, transport costs, digital access or oneoff costs that help them access local services and networks.

Our new Sustaining Accommodation Fund offers grants of up to £10,000 to organisations supporting people who are at risk of losing their home. Each organisation receives a block grant, which they can award in smaller grants of up to £500 per person, as and when the people they support need it.

This way, frontline workers and the people they support have the flexibility and autonomy to decide what will make the most meaningful difference to keeping their home.

Organisations also receive a small contribution to help cover the time and resources needed for reporting and learning, and to support frontline staff to use the fund effectively.

Thanks to the generosity of people like you, pilot programmes like this one will help us understand not only what works to help people stay in their homes, but also how flexible, responsive funding can be delivered in practice.

To find out more, go to: smitfc.org/sustainingaccommodation-fund

A legacy of compassion

Every time you support St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity, you help people experiencing homelessness transform their lives.

But what if you could do even more, long into the future?

A gift in your Will could help provide hope for a better tomorrow. After taking care of your loved ones, even a small gift can make a life-changing difference.

For more than 100 years, St Martin-in-the-Fields has helped those who found themselves homeless with practical and emotional support. Today, and with the support of kind people like you, St Martin’s Charity continues that vital work across all four nations of the United Kingdom.

We know that, with sustained support, it is possible for people experiencing homelessness to regain their confidence, rebuild relationships and create a positive future they might have once thought impossible.

With a gift in your Will, you can help maintain this legacy of compassion –helping people experiencing homelessness find a safe place to call home for generations to come.

Call 020 3795 5745

Email info@stmartinscharity.org.uk

Visit smitfc.org/leave-a-gift-for-everyone

charity number: 1156305