About St Mungo's#
St Mungo's was founded in 1969 by volunteers helping people sleeping rough outside Charing Cross station in London, and opened its first hostel in a former Marmite factory in Vauxhall in 1973. It says its purpose is to end homelessness and rebuild lives after it. It is also a housing association, regulated as a social landlord, so many of the people it helps are its tenants or residents. It works in almost every London borough and in Bristol, Oxford, Brighton and Hove, Reading, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
How people reach it#
St Mungo's does not take walk-in requests for a bed: its accommodation is filled through referrals from councils and other partners. Its help page sets out the routes:
- Your council's housing options team first, if you are homeless or about to be.
- StreetLink if you are sleeping rough. St Mungo's helps run it in London, where a self-referral phone line is staffed from 9am to 9pm every day, with interpreters; outside London, use the StreetLink website. Its 13 outreach teams work day and night, all year.
- Day centres, which you can visit without a referral, for advice and training.
Its criminal justice services support thousands of prisoners and people leaving prison each year, with referrals made by probation staff. It also runs women-only services, and support for people who are not UK nationals regardless of immigration status; it says it does not share client information with the Home Office without consent unless the law requires it.
Its voting guide, and why it matters#
St Mungo's has no guide to deed polls or ID. Its closest is a guide to registering to vote while homeless, which makes three useful points:
- Register again after a change of name, as you would after a change of address or nationality.
- Use a place where you spend a lot of time as your address if you have none, such as a night shelter, hostel or a day service you visit.
- Match the names for voter ID. If the name on your photo ID differs from your name on the register, you need a Voter Authority Certificate, applied for in the name you registered with.
Its guide also notes that without a National Insurance number you can prove who you are with documents such as a birth certificate or bank statement, or have someone who knows you confirm it.
Putting the pieces in order#
Anyone aged 16 or over can make a deed poll free, with GOV.UK's wording and two adult witnesses. Then, if you are a St Mungo's resident or tenant, tell your key worker or housing officer, with a copy, so the record of your licence or tenancy matches (changing the name on your tenancy agreement). Re-register to vote in the new name (the electoral register), and if your photo ID still shows the old one, read voting with ID in your old name before polling day.
Where it works#
St Mungo's works in England only, in the areas above. Elsewhere, Crisis has Skylight centres across Great Britain, and the advice and housing charities page lists housing advice in each nation.
This page describes what St Mungo's publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. St Mungo's has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
