Cash blow for hostel scheme (From Free Press Series)

Cash blow for hostel scheme

CONTROVERSIAL plans to create a hostel for the homeless in Chepstow have been dealt a major blow due to a cash shortage.

Members at a recent Chepstow town council meeting were told there is now a question mark over the scheme because additional cash from the National Assembly will not be forthcoming.

But officers at Monmouthshire County Council say they are hopeful the scheme can still go ahead, with money taken from other sources.

David Morris, operations manager for housing services, at Monmouthshire County Council, said: "Money that was envisaged to be available is no longer the case.

However, there is other money available in other areas and we are looking to remodel our plans. We are very hopeful the scheme will still go ahead."

Charter Housing propose to turn Hill House - a bed and breakfast, in Hardwick Hill, Mount Pleasant - into sleeping accommodation for the temporary homeless.

This will provide nine flats with education and training opportunities for young people aged under 25.

County council cabinet member Jim Higginson, who supports the scheme, says it is time to tighten belts to afford the project.

He said: "We do not want to lose this particular project and we are looking at how we can accommodate the requirements, but there is not as much funding around.

"We must tighten our belts to get the project off the ground and retain the scheme. But it is not being stopped."

Richard Thomas, of the homeless charity Shelter, who was at the town council meeting, said that opponents of the hostel had "misconceptions" about homelessness; and that many people associated homelessness with sleeping rough and problems of alcohol, drugs and crime.

Mr Thomas said: "There was a misconception about homelessness among the people who opposed the conversion of Hill House.

"People become homeless for a wide variety of reasons including defaulting on their mortgage and the break-up of the family.

"If a person has nowhere to live or they are faced with losing their home within 28 days, then they are homeless."