Focus will shift from reducing rough sleepers to helping the 'hidden homeless'
Homelessness charity Crisis this week announced a change of direction. It is to focus on "hidden homelessness"– people in temporary accommodation but with continuing housing problems – rather than only rough sleepers.

Meanwhile Crisis' 30-year-old red house logo has been changed (see left) and the charity will move to new headquarters in Commercial Street, east London, on 2 September.

Crisis chief executive Shaks Ghosh said that, with rough sleeping at an all-time low, it was time for Crisis to reassess its purpose. Although many of Crisis' clients were in temporary accommodation, the emotional problems that contributed to their homelessness still need to be addressed, she said.

To kick off its new incarnation, Crisis launched two projects to tackle the low self-esteem and personal problems associated with homelessness. Both will begin in September.

The first project, Crisis Skylight, will be an activity centre in the new headquarters where both rough sleepers and the vulnerably housed can socialise and access leisure activities. Half the centre's clients will be non-homeless people. It is hoped this will help homeless members reintegrate into society. The emphasis will be on having fun and building confidence rather than training for work.

The second project, Changing Lives, will fund educational and vocational training courses for homeless people.

Ghosh said the charity would move away from rough sleeping projects towards projects tackling "personal crises". Some rough sleeper projects may be phased out once the new services are running, particularly if rough sleeping does not rise. FareShare, which distributes surplus food from shops and restaurants to homelessness hostels, will become a separate charity.

One of the triggers of the new direction was the report A Future Foretold, commissioned by Crisis. It looked at the events that trigger homelessness and concluded that counselling and mediation services were needed, as well as ways of improving homeless people's quality of life.

Crisis expects to raise an extra £0.5m next year but Ghosh said the new brand was not brought in to increase income.

Ghosh denied that the new direction came about because there were too many charities working on rough sleeping, particularly after the failure of Crisis' merger with Shelter.

Ghosh said: "[The change] started long before we considered a merger. When the government adopted the rough sleeping targets, we knew we either needed to say 'mission accomplished', have a big party and disappear, or say 'our clients still need us, but they are no longer on the street and need new services'."

She said the new direction will not change the relationship between the two charities and did not accept that Shelter and Crisis duplicated services.

She said Shelter was "much more of a housing organisation and we are much more about people services".