Our history

Hestia’s origins are to be found at the grass roots of homelessness: with the soup run set up to help those living rough around old Covent Garden Market in 1970.

Jim Horne, a man who knew about homelessness and its causes from both sides of the fence, founded the St Mungo Community Trust that year, organising volunteers to run soup kitchens supplied with free bones and vegetables from Smithfield and Covent Garden markets. He obtained the use of run-down houses at token rents from the GLC and local authorities, and these sheltered the men and women who lived on the streets. Single homeless men received far less attention and support than any other group.

For nearly a decade the Trust pioneered work in this area, running the old Marmite factory in Vauxhall, the old Charing Cross hospital and other properties to provide as many as 700-800 people a night with accommodation. It was the dedication of the members of the Trust and of those who supported them which kept the work going in conditions which would seem almost impossible today.

This early pioneering spirit has been like the yeast which has grown Hestia into the thriving wide-ranging organisation which it is today. It branched out into specialist support services, and to avoid confusion with its sister organisation, St Mungo’s Housing Association, changed its name to Hestia Housing and Support in June 1998.

Today, still based in London, Hestia provides housing and support services to people across London, with mental health needs, drugs and alcohol problems, HIV/AIDS, complex needs, offenders, ex-offenders, mentally disordered offenders, women fleeing domestic violence, homeless people, young parents and those with physical disabilities.