A SHELTER to help Blackpool's homeless over the worst of the winter is due to open in December.

Homeless charity CRISIS has given a grant to the Manchester Methodist Housing Association to run a Winter Watch shelter in a former council hostel for homeless families in Talbot Road.

Blackpool Council has offered the premises rent-free for the duration of the scheme from December 1 to March 31.

The shelter will be open from 4pm to 9.30am each day, offering beds, washing and laundry facilities, a kitchen and dining room, plus health checks and social services support.

The premises, a former Territorial Army base near the junction with Devonshire Road, were no longer needed by the council, said social services executive Coun Sue Wright, and it was better to see them in use than derelict and vandalised.

"We support this scheme wholeheartedly," she said. "I'm sure everybody in Blackpool would welcome it too, because it will get people off the streets and give them somewhere warm and dry at the worst time of year."

Blackpool and other seaside resorts suffer relatively high rates of homelessness as people come hoping for seasonal work and fall through the housing net.

Blackpool Council has been working with the Government's Task Force on Rough Sleeping and Fylde Coast Community Health Trust homelessness team, as well as housing associations, to tackle the problem.

They have found that if they can get homeless people into hostels, with health, social care and other supporting services, it can often be a stepping stone back to normal life.

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