Night shelter 'important' warm space for rough sleepers in cold months, says Herefordshire councillor
The winter night shelter re-opened in Hereford on the 3 November this year and helped 71 people over 157 nights during its previous period
Herefordshire Council's cabinet member for adults, health and wellbeing has said it's "so important" to get those who are rough sleeping into warm accommodation through the winter months.
It's as a yellow cold weather health alert has been in place for the region throughout the week.
The authority announced at the start of this month it had re-opened its winter night shelter, which aims to provide a warm and dry communal space for people who would otherwise be sleeping rough, including a separate safe and private space for women rough sleepers.
Operated by CCP (Caring for Communities and People) in partnership with Herefordshire Council, during its previous period from last December to this April, it helped 71 individuals over 157 nights with emergency overnight accommodation.
Although it is not required to provide such a service, the council say the shelter is part of its local strategy to prevent rough sleeping wherever possible and where it cannot be prevented to ensure that it is rare, brief and non-recurring.
"For us, it's about making sure that those that sleep rough on our streets have somewhere warm to sleep at night during the winter months," said councillor Carol Gandy, the cabinet member for adults, health and wellbeing,
"We don't know how cold it's going to be this winter, this week has shown that actually the temperatures can change rapidly.
"It's about working with them during those few months that we've got them to sort of find out why they've got into the situation they have and how we can help them in the longer term, whether we can put them into some form of supported accommodation for example."
On the impact the shelter has had, Gandy added: "When we closed the shelter at the end of April because of the weather becoming so warm, we only actually had five that went back onto the streets, the rest we were able to put in either supported accommodation or other temporary accommodation."
It's set to remain open until 30 April during this period, with an extension possible if weather conditions are poor.