OFF THE STREETS

Registered charity 1184331 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The relief of poverty for the benefit of people who are homeless or rough sleepers in Southend-on-Sea and the surrounding area, in particular but not exclusively, by providing short term accommodation and supporting and assisting those homeless persons who want to escape homelessness by providing signposting/advocacy and on-going support for up to 6 months to enable rough sleepers to move on.

Objects

THE RELIEF OF POVERTY FOR THE BENEFIT OF PEOPLE WHO ARE HOMELESS OR ROUGH SLEEPERS IN SOUTHEND-ON-SEA AND THE SURROUNDING AREA, IN PARTICULAR BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, BY PROVIDING SHORT TERM ACCOMMODATION AND SUPPORTING AND ASSISTING THOSE HOMELESS PERSONS WHO WANT TO ESCAPE HOMELESSNESS BY PROVIDING SIGNPOSTING/ADVOCACY AND PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR UP TO 6 MONTHS TO ENABLE ROUGH SLEEPERS TO MOVE INTO MORE PERMANENT ACCOMMODATION.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Disability · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Southend-on-Sea, East of England, England (from the postcode on the register)

Latest income

£367k

Latest spending

£153k

Registered

2019

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The charity holds unrestricted reserves of £72,721, which exceeds its stated policy ceiling of £36,000. The accounts are subject to independent examination rather than audit, with the examiner reporting no material matters requiring attention. The charity holds significant fixed assets valued at £1,249,616, secured by loans totaling £564,000.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Largest income source: Charitable grants (62% of income)

“We have also been successful in attracting a wide range of charitable grants during 2025 raising £228,155.”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves policy: three months expenditure (reserves figure: £73k)

“This was reset at a maximum of £36,000 but will be reviewed to align with the equivalent of 3 months expenditure whenever our resources can support such an increase.” — page 4

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Payments to trustees: Mr D Thomas, a trustee of the business was employed by the charity in the year. Mr Thomas was employed to perform fundraising duties as per an employment contract. The services provided are outside the scope of services expected of a Trustee and guidance was obtained from The Charity Commission prior to the appointment. Remuneration paid to Mr D Thomas in the year was £34,650 (2024: £33,314). Miss K Fields, a trustee of the business was employed by the charity in the year. Miss Fields was employed to perform managerial duties as per an employment contract. The services provided are outside the scope of services expected of a Trustee and guidance was obtained from The Charity Commission prior to the appointment. Remuneration paid to Miss Fields in the year was £49,788 (2024: £34,153).

“Remuneration paid to Mr D Thomas in the year was £34,650 (2024: £33,314). Miss K Fields, a trustee of the business was employed by the charity in the year. Miss Fields was employed to perform managerial duties as per an employment contract. The services provided are outside the scope of services expected of a Trustee and guidance was obtained from The Charity Commission prior to the appointment. Remuneration paid to Miss Fields in the year was £49,788 (2024: £34,153).” — page 12

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
Complaints handling
Complaints policy and procedures
Conflicting interests
Financial reserves policy and procedures
Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
Internal risk management policy and procedures
Investment
Paying staff
Risk management
Safeguarding policy and procedures
Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
Social media policy and procedures
Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
Trustee expenses policy and procedures
Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/12/2025

Volunteers: 12

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/12/2024

Volunteers: 38

Self-declared on the annual return for the financial year ending 31/12/2023

Volunteers: 20
Trustee benefits, answered Yes to: any trustee benefit; payments to trustees for services to the charity

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Off the Streets (matched by registered charity number).

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2023)

Total income

£512k

Total spending

£171k

Cost of raising funds

£40k

Reserves (reported)

£82k

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~5.7 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 7.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (79% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 7.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Gary Paul Wattschair
Derek George Thomas
Karen Fields
Kevin Francis Buck · trustee of 1 other charity
Kirsty Fields
Philippa Foster
Susan Ann Cater

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Southend-on-sea

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/12/2025	£367k	£153k
31/12/2024	£270k	£168k
31/12/2023	£512k	£171k
31/12/2022	£155k	£99k
31/12/2021	£140k	£60k

Common questions

Is OFF THE STREETS financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The charity holds unrestricted reserves of £72,721, which exceeds its stated policy ceiling of £36,000. The accounts are subject to independent examination rather than audit, with the examiner reporting no material matters requiring attention. The charity holds significant fixed assets valued at £1,249,616, secured by loans totaling £564,000. Its FY2025 accounts were independently examined.

Who funds OFF THE STREETS?

Funders whose own accounts filings name OFF THE STREETS as a grant recipient include FOWLER SMITH AND JONES TRUST, ESSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION, THE JOHN HORSEMAN TRUST, THE BEATRICE LAING TRUST, THE GROCERS' CHARITY.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
FOWLER SMITH AND JONES TRUST	FY2024	£36k	Towards a shelter for the homeless in Southend
FOWLER SMITH AND JONES TRUST	FY2023	£32k	Towards a shelter for the homeless in Southend
FOWLER SMITH AND JONES TRUST	FY2025	£23k	Towards a shelter for the homeless in Southend
ESSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	FY2025	£15k
THE JOHN HORSEMAN TRUST	FY2024	£10k
THE JOHN HORSEMAN TRUST	FY2025	£10k
THE BEATRICE LAING TRUST	FY2025	£8k
THE GROCERS' CHARITY	FY2024	£5k	Relief of Poverty
ROSCA TRUST	FY2022	£5k
THE BATCHWORTH TRUST	FY2024	£5k
THE MRS SMITH AND MOUNT TRUST	FY2024	£5k	Mount Fund
THE MRS SMITH AND MOUNT TRUST	FY2025	£5k	Mount Fund - Homelessness
THE ARCHER TRUST	FY2023	£5k	Charitable activities
THE HOBSON CHARITY LIMITED	FY2024	£4k	Homelessness
ROSCA TRUST	FY2023	£4k
THE CHARLES LEWIS FOUNDATION	FY2026	£3k	Towards a disabled access ramp at the shelter.
THE WO STREET CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	FY2023	£3k
CHARLES S FRENCH CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£3k
THE CARMELA & RONNIE PIGNATELLI FOUNDATION	FY2025	£3k
LORD BARNBY'S FOUNDATION	FY2025	£2k
LORD BARNBY'S FOUNDATION	FY2024	£2k
JEREMY ALEXANDER SETTLEMENT	FY2026	£1k
THE HASLUCK CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£1k
THE ARCHER TRUST	FY2024	£1k
THE HASLUCK CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£1k
THE SANGHERA FOUNDATION	FY2024	£1k
THE MAGENI TRUST	FY2024	£1k
THE ASTOR FOUNDATION	FY2025	£1k	Disadvantaged
THE KNOLL CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£200
THE KNOLL CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£115
THE SANGHERA FOUNDATION	FY2025	amount not stated

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
UK government	24/05/2024	£65k	Transformation Fund
UK government	01/04/2023	£22k	Transformation Fund
UK government	01/04/2023	£43k	Transformation Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund	02/07/2021	£9k	Off the Streets
UK government	01/04/2021	£17k	Transformation Fund
UK government	22/09/2020	£26k	Coronavirus Community Support Fund

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE PRET FOUNDATION	2	£56k
STREETS OF LONDON	2	£45k
CHARITY OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON	1	£103k
THE STANTON BALLARD CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£58k
THE MAURICE AND HILDA LAING CHARITABLE TRUST	1	£50k
THE FORRESTER FAMILY TRUST	1	£25k
THE BLOOM FOUNDATION	1	£23k
THE JAN AND CATHERINE NASMYTH CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	1	£20k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with STREETS OF LONDON.

STREETS OF LONDON income £482k
OFF THE FENCE TRUST LIMITED income £595k
HOMELESS ACTION income £3.8m
HOMELESS OXFORDSHIRE LIMITED income £6.3m
STREETS2HOMES income £332k
SHELTER FROM THE STORM income £549k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
OFF THE STREETS	£367k	—	0	above	—	no doubt
STREETS OF LONDON FY2025	£482k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
OFF THE FENCE TRUST LIMITED FY2025	£595k	£61,620	1	unclear	—	no doubt
HOMELESS ACTION FY2025	£3.8m	£100,001 - £110,000	1	below	—	no doubt
HOMELESS OXFORDSHIRE LIMITED FY2025	£6.3m	—	—	above	—	no doubt
STREETS2HOMES FY2025	£332k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.