Exeter homelessness charity St Petrock’s has launched its 2025 Christmas fundraising appeal with a short film underscoring its mission: that everyone deserves a place to feel safe, supported and connected – especially at Christmas.
The sixty-second film, produced by Devon film-makers All Told, features interviews with St Petrock’s client Richard, volunteer Linda and head of client services, Rowan.
Richard says he would have “been in the gutter twelve, thirteen years ago” if not for the charity, which he describes as “like a little family”.
Linda, who has been cooking food at St Petrock’s for 23 years, says: “One of the best things you can possibly do is make a meal for somebody … giving time to other people is one of the most important things in the world. I hope I make a difference.”
Rowan says: “If you help us, we will keep helping all of those people every year, throughout the year, for as long as we are needed.”
St Petrock’s 2025 Christmas appeal film
The charity says that already critically-high Exeter rough sleeper numbers have risen still further.
Between April and September this year it says an average of 40 people slept rough on the streets of Exeter each night, a 38% increase on the same six months in 2024.
During the same period it supported 150 new homeless and rough sleeping clients, gave out 476 sleeping bags, washed 528 laundry loads and provided 7,815 meals – all also increases on the previous year.
St Petrock’s director Peter Stephenson said: “It’s never a good time to sleep rough, but it does seem to be getting harder”.
A Museum of Homelessness report, published last month, found that 21 people died while homeless in Exeter in 2024. It recorded eight such deaths in the city in 2023 and 2022.
Among the ten English cities featured in the report, of which Exeter was the smallest, the homeless death rate in Exeter was the highest at 15.17 per 100,000 population.
It was four times the rate in London and six and a half times the rate across the whole UK.
Rough sleeper shelter beside Paris Street shop window
St Petrock’s began providing homelessness support in December 1994. Its team, supported by around 30 volunteers, helps people to access housing, healthcare, benefits and other essential services.
From its centre in Cathedral Yard it works across Exeter to ensure people on the streets have somewhere safe to turn, receive support and access long-term pathways away from homelessness.
It provides hot showers, laundry facilities, phone and internet access and supplies survival equipment and clothing.
It also prepares and serves breakfast and lunch to rough sleepers across the city each weekday and will provide a full Christmas lunch to all its clients on 25 December.
Nearly three-quarters of the funding for its services, which cost £700,000 to provide each year, comes from the local community.
Rough sleeper sheltering at Exeter Guildhall
The charity’s 2025 Christmas appeal aims to raise £50,000 to support its work at what it is a difficult time of year for rough sleepers.
The festivities, which many take for granted, can make the experience of extreme poverty suffered by those without a home more severe.
They often also bring back difficult memories of past Christmases, of loss or trauma fuelled by festive excess, at a time when social isolation and loneliness can feel acute.
You can donate to the St Petrock’s Christmas appeal via its website until 5 January 2026, where you can also find out more about regularly supporting its work as well as volunteering to help.
Mint Methodist Church Centre is accepting donations of essentials such as rucksacks, sleeping bags and clothing as well as small gifts such as chocolate, torches and hairbrushes, among other things on its wish list.
Small donations of four bags or less can be dropped to the centre from 9.45am to 4pm Monday to Thursday, and until 1pm on Friday.
To arrange to drop-off larger donations contact St Petrock’s at info@stpetrocks.org.uk or by telephone on 01392 422396.
