History


Over 30 years…

Thirty years ago a group of church people recognised the need to address the growing problem of local homelessness so formed a charity called The North Herts Sanctuary.

The charity raised money and took donations of food, clothing and other necessities to support homeless people in the local area. In 1999 the charity rented The North Herts Sanctuary building in Hitchin which was run directly by volunteers as a hostel for the homeless. With great foresight and facilitated by loans, the trustees took the opportunity to buy the building in 2006 achieving outright ownership in 2016.

During this period changing government regulations restricted funding to registered provider organisations who had greater skills and expertise than smaller charities such as ourselves. Consequently, the charity decided to lease the building to a better resourced charity, initially London based St Mungo’s in 2011, followed by Stevenage based Haven First in 2015.This ensured the continued use of our building for the provision of accommodation and support services for the homeless. Most recently, in 2022, One YMCA took over Haven First’s operations so becoming tenant and operator of the hostel.

Throughout this time the charity continued fundraising to support partner charities and other organisations across Hertfordshire who shared our core aim of alleviating homelessness.

Increasingly the charity was working outside North Hertfordshire District so in 2022 it was decided to change our name from ‘The North Herts Sanctuary’ to ‘Helping Herts Homeless’.

Bunk Beds
Fundraising Stall
HHH Stand
Quiz night