York Road Project supported 181 people in 2025-26, up 21% on the year, while the government's autumn count of rough sleepers in Woking fell from 8 to 6.

Woking’s homelessness charity helped 181 people in the year to March 2026, more than in any year of its three decades except during the pandemic. Demand rose 21% in twelve months, and half of those it worked with had never come to it before.

Those figures are in York Road Project’s 2026 impact report, published for its 2025-26 financial year (York Road Project). The charity notes that its financial figures are unaudited and may change before the accounts are filed with the Charity Commission.

What the year looked like

  • 181 individuals supported, a 21% rise on 2024-25.
  • Almost exactly half were new to the charity’s services. The number of new individuals assessed was 73% higher than the year before.
  • 73% had a mental health support need. 30% cited debt or finances, which the report calls a significant increase on previous years.
  • Accommodation ran at 94% of capacity across the year, against an internal target of 85%.
  • 68 people were accommodated at 1 York Road, the charity’s flagship building, across ten single bedrooms. Residents can stay up to 12 weeks with 24-hour support while longer-term housing is found.
  • 151 people used the Resource Centre in the town centre, up 14%.
  • 74 people used the Rough Sleeper Drop-In for showers, clean clothes, hot drinks and food, up 28%.
  • The Outreach team worked with 101 people, up 26%. Of those, 73% had slept rough at some point in the year, which the report says is a 41% increase on 2024-25.

Its three Move-On properties, where people can stay between six and 24 months, accommodated 19 at Guildford Road across five beds, 11 at Campbell Avenue across five beds and eight at Chapel Street across four beds. The report says no Tenancy Sustainment case closed unsuccessfully last year, with the average case closed after 6.5 months.

The official count went the other way

The charity’s outreach numbers point to rising rough sleeping in the borough. The government’s own measure does not, at least not in Woking.

The annual rough sleeping snapshot is a single-night estimate taken each autumn by every council in England. Woking’s autumn 2025 figure was 6 people, down from 8 in 2024 and 9 in 2023 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: rough sleeping snapshot in England, autumn 2025).

Bar chart of the government's autumn rough sleeping snapshot for Woking borough from 2016 to 2025, peaking at 18 in 2017, falling to 1 in 2020 and standing at 6 in 2025

That is against the grain. Across Surrey’s eleven districts the snapshot total rose from 59 to 68 over the same year. Runnymede went from 2 to 7, Mole Valley from 1 to 5, and Guildford, Reigate and Banstead and Surrey Heath each rose by three. Only Epsom and Ewell fell further than Woking. Nationally the count rose from 4,667 to 4,793, and in the South East from 795 to 797.

The two things are not really in contradiction, and it is worth being clear why. The snapshot counts people bedded down outdoors on one night in autumn. The charity counts everyone who came through its doors across a whole year, including people at risk of homelessness who never slept out, and people who slept rough for a period and then did not. A year of service data will always find more people than a single night, and it can move in the opposite direction.

What the two together do show is that fewer people were on Woking’s streets on the night of the count than in either of the two previous years, while the number seeking help locally over the full year was at its highest outside the pandemic.

Thirty years, and a building of its own

The charity began in 1995 as Woking Winter Watch, a volunteer-led seasonal service running for eight weeks from 158 York Road. It leased 1 York Road in 2000, became York Road Project and a registered charity in 2001, opened its first Move-On properties in 2008 and converted a disused nightclub on Goldsworth Road into its Resource Centre in 2016.

The biggest change last year was not a service. In 2025 negotiations concluded to transfer full ownership of 1 York Road to the charity. Its report says this means it can be certain of continuing to accommodate people on the site “for many years to come, despite the changes to local authorities”. Both Woking Borough Council and Surrey County Council cease to exist on 1 April 2027, replaced by a single West Surrey Council covering six boroughs (Surrey LGR Hub).

On costs, the report says the charity spent 7.6p of every £1 raised on fundraising, against 8.5p for the average charity according to Charity Commission data. Its Resource Centre is funded solely by voluntary donations.

One number to treat carefully

The report states that “in the last two years alone, 1 person for every 275 Woking residents has approached us for help”. The charity’s own news page summarises the same report with a different figure, “the equivalent of one person for every 290 Woking residents”. The two are close, and the report is the fuller document, but if you see the smaller number quoted elsewhere it is worth knowing there are two in circulation.

What it means for you

  • If you are worried about someone sleeping rough in Woking, the charity’s Outreach team is usually the first contact, and its Resource Centre runs a drop-in every morning. Its details are on its own website.
  • If you are at risk of losing your home, the charity’s Tenancy Sustainment service exists for exactly that, and its own figures suggest it works.
  • If you want to help, the Resource Centre is funded entirely by donations, and the charity’s fundraising cost ratio is below the sector average.
  • Read the snapshot for what it is. A falling count on one autumn night does not mean fewer people needed help in Woking last year. On the charity’s numbers, more did.

Sources

Charity figures are drawn from York Road Project’s own 2025-26 reporting and are described in the report as unaudited. Checked against the sources above on 26 August 2026.