U-turn, a non-profit tackling homelessness, has released its 2024-’25 annual report which revealed it had – in this fiscal period – served more than 2 600 people, provided 73 846 meals and offered more than 29 000 bed nights through safe spaces and transitional housing, despite sharp declines in government and foundation funding.
The organisation saw a 52% drop in government support and 16% dip in trust funding, but still increased its overall income by 5%, thanks to a 119% rise in private donations. Self-generated revenue made up 45% of income, while 55% came from donors.
CEO Jean Ray Knighton Fitt said: “Our work is not just about shelter, it’s about dignity, purpose, and transformation.”
One success story is Elecia Rix, a former client who once slept in stairwells and drug dens to keep her daughter safe. Now a programme administrator, she said: “With the right support lives can be transformed and hope can be restored.”
U-turn paid R4.8 million in stipends to participants in its work-readiness programme, who logged more than 237 000 hours of paid work. Forty-nine individuals graduated from the programme this year,a 158% increase from 2023.
Board chair Alistair Philander summed it up “We are reshaping the narrative of homelessness through consistency, collaboration and compassion.”
