Church group blasts plan to close Doncaster homeless shelter as "ludicrous"

Open House Plus, which is situated on College Road, could shut by the New Year, bosses at operators Changing Lives have said.

Chiefs have said the closure of the distinctive and landmark building near to Doncaster’s main police station would not impact on the city’s homeless community, with alternative plans in place.

But Churches Together In Central Doncaster Homeless Group has criticised the plans – and has urged members of the public to appeal to City of Doncaster Council to call off the planned closure.

In a lengthy statement, CTICD said: “The council maybe flying high with its airport plans, but it's leaving more and more rough sleepers on the ground.

“Whilst the council must be congratulated on getting its airport plans back on track, we feel it is ludicrous at this point in time to consider closing one of its two homeless shelters - aarticularly when there are a growing number of rough sleepers appearing on its city streets, which I'm sure the general public and city centre businesses know only too well.

“Although the council appears to paint a positive, long term, picture for those in our community who have finished up with no roofs over their heads, to us in the Churches Together In Central Doncaster Homeless Group and all the voluntary groups which serve meals, provide clothing and give other support to these folks every week throughout the year, there is a lot more that could, and needs to be done, before the Council even considers such a closure.”

Currently the Council has two homeless hostels which are both managed under contract by Changing Lives - a 26-bed unit (Open House Plus) on College Road and another 30-bed unit (Wharf House) on Wharf Road.

The spokesperson added: “These shelters have been full to capacity ever since they were built about twenty-five and fifteen years ago respectively and there has always been a number waiting for a bed space.

"Currently the Council's official figures reveal that there are about eight or nine folks sleeping out rough; albeit the voluntary groups argue that there are about two or three times this number given the recent early release of prisoners and the general dire lack of social housing.

“A couple of years ago however, the Council commissioned an in-house report and concluded it only needed to provide half the number of bed spaces it was providing for rough sleepers.

"This was because it was considered better placing them in properties on their own, away from the influences they would have in a hostel.

"We totally agree with this philosophy, but only when other measures are put in place.

"Indeed, in this context the Council, in line with other local authorities, has been specifically reserving accommodation under the Housing First initiative to continue supporting folks moving back into the community, to help the maintain their tenancies and break the vicious cycle of rough sleeping.

"In fact, over the last three years the Council has managed to reserve an average of nine of these properties per year to provide the permanent homes needed, which is great.

“The council has also, together with Target Housing, made a successful bid to secure Government funding to provide 18 SHAP (Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme) properties by March 2025 to provide temporary dedicated single placement support, as an alternative to that provided in the shelters, until such time as the folks are considered capable of moving out into accommodation on their own.

“The point is although the Council is going to provide the 18 new placements for the 26 temporary bed spaces it will lose when it closes the Open House Plus hostel this will effectively reduce the number of temporary bed spaces by eight. Although we don't think for one minute the Council will turn their residents out on the street the loss of this temporary accommodation will effectively add to the growing problem of rough sleepers in Doncaster.

“If readers are similarly concerned there are three things they could do:

“Appeal to the Council to postpone the closure of the Open House Plus hostel until they have put other provisions in place to meet the shortfall in temporary accommodation – 8 or 9 officially, plus the eight other temporary placements lost when the hostel closes - if you ignore the voluntary groups findings.

"To this end we advocate the hostel should be retained to house rough sleepers until sufficient suitable alternatives are put in place – and not by simply offering temporary hotel placements at cost to ratepayers.

“Support the ‘Real Help Doncaster’ scheme (administered by the Changing Lives charity group) to provide practical support to local homeless persons instead of giving them money which could be used to feed any addiction habits they may have picked up.

"This will help fund a day centre so the rough sleepers have somewhere warm and dry they can go instead of wandering aimlessly around, or begging, on our city's streets.

"Many of the voluntary groups would willingly staff and provide hot drinks, snacks and entertainment if the Council allowed use of part of a building for such use.

"The Open House Plus hostel has a large lounge which would be ideal for this purpose, until the Council decide to close the building or offer another for such use.

"Details of the ‘Real Help Doncaster’ initiative can be seen on-line or on a poster in the Civic Office reception. Please specify if you want your donation to help support the running of a day centre.

“To offer support to, or volunteer to help on a rota basis, one of the voluntary groups which provide food, drinks and clothing etc throughout the year. Details of these services are listed on the Homeless Maps also available at the Civic Offices reception for anyone who would like to help.

“In conclusion, speaking on behalf of those who, for a multitude of reasons, find themselves sleeping rough and for the voluntary groups which try their best to relieve their suffering, we would urge the Council to delay the closure of its homeless hostel until it has put sufficient other measures in place.

"We just hope the Council realises, when considering the closure of the Open House Plus hostel, it will have a golden opportunity in March next year when it moves 18 of its residents out into the SHAP properties, to get all the rough sleepers off the streets both overnight and during the day until it gets its long term plans in place.

"As always, time will reveal what's been done, or not done, but meanwhile it looks like being a long hard winter for those left out in the cold.”

Phil Holmes, City of Doncaster Council’s Executive Director for Adults, Wellbeing and Culture said: "Doncaster Council has worked hard to build a strong partnership approach to tackling rough sleeping across Doncaster and the recent awarding of two long-term contracts to Changing Lives and Target Housing will allow us to take this work to the next level.

"The long-term nature of these contracts shows our commitment to tackling rough sleeping, and our understanding that such a long-term issue requires a long-term solution.

"Part of our approach involves reducing our dependency on hostel accommodation, which is not suitable for everybody, particularly those with underlying vulnerabilities.

"We've been replacing some of our hostel accommodation with other supported accommodation, so that we are still able to help as many people as previously but to do so in a way that is more likely to help a greater number break out of the vicious cycle of rough sleeping.

"This approach is replacing the need for the hostel at Open House Plus, but we will review progress and make a decision on this in the New Year."