Wrexham Homeless Shelter Backed

A permanent night shelter for homeless people in Wrexham is a step closer.  Campaigners said a temporary 10-bed shelter which opened for several months last year, including at Christmas, showed that it was needed.

Councillors agreed to rent the former Maes-y-Dre Community Centre on Holt Road to Clwyd Alyn Housing Association for a peppercorn sum.

It will have separate male and female accommodation and could be open before Christmas.

Funding towards running the shelter has been secured from the Welsh Assembly Government’s homelessness grant programme at £40,000 a year.

But councillors were told that more money will be needed to run it.

The temporary shelter closed its doors six months ago, although the housing association was planning at that time to replace it with a permanent one.

Staff estimated then that as many as 30 people slept on the streets in Wrexham town centre each night.