Crawley Open House

Welcome to our Web Site which we hope will give you an insight into our work, our staff, our supporters and our clients. It may encourage you to Volunteer, to donate, or even to approach us for help.

We are a "one off" charity based in Crawley, West Sussex about two miles away from Gatwick Airport. We are almost exactly midway between London and Brighton on the south coast. Crawley was one of the original "New Towns" which were built from the 1950s onwards.

Crawley Open House cares for people suffering from the effects of homelessness, unemployment, loneliness, discrimination or social exclusion.

We do this by providing Drop In Day Centres (shown to left) and a Direct Access Hostel which can be accessed by anybody who needs help, advice or just the company of somebody who cares, emphasises and who tries to understand. We also provide a high support hostel for young people

Our base and main Project are housed in a converted 1960s single storey factory building on a small industrial estate. The picture shows our official opening. We are very close to Three Bridges Railway Station which is on the main London to Brighton line.
Our address:-
Riverside House
Stephenson Way
Three Bridges
Crawley
West Sussex RH10 1TN

We pride ourselves on being a little different to most other homeless projects.
We do not judge or question homeless men, women or couples who approach us for accommodation. If we have an empty bed we give it to them straight away.
We take in peoples pets as well. Why should a homeless person have to give up their dog or cat or rabbit etc, just to get help.
We give couples a double room. Most hostels split couples up into seperate rooms, or buildings.

The photograph above shows our original Day Centre in an old school building. Behind it on the old playground was our hostel which comprised of number of port-a-cabins.
The photograph on the right is of our new Hostel and Day Centre called "Southwell Lodge" which opened on 23rd January 2006. You will find a lot more detail on our new Project if you click on the link at the bottom of this page. Alternatively you can ring 447703 for more details.

Please click on icon below to read more information about Southwell Lodge and the clients living there.

 At long last in April 2009 we have been able to open our first move on accommodation. A five bedroomed house within walking distance of our main project. Clients who are almost ready to become fully independent can move into it with minimal support for a few months. We lease the building from a private landlord on favourable terms which means that we can keep the rent per person can be kept quite low so our clients can if they wish get a job while they live there. This photograph shows our first five residents and our Deputy Director Charlie (second from right)