A senior councillor from Horsham District Council paid a visit to a Horsham based night shelter last week (week commencing 29 January) to meet volunteers and guests who stay there.

The night shelter has been operating during the coldest months to support rough sleepers in the Horsham District.

Following the visit last week, Councillor Kate Rowbottom, Cabinet Member for Housing and Public Protection said:

“This provision of Horsham’s Night Shelters would not be possible without the huge amount of support from the volunteers and churches that make this happen. In addition, the support from Horsham Matters and the Worthing Churches Homeless Project (WCHP) is fantastic.”

It is a great shame that in these times people are finding themselves without a roof over their heads.

Working in partnership with Horsham Matters and WCIP, services available also include daily drop- in sessions at the Council offices for anyone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The Council also supports outreach workers to actively seek out and engage with any reported individual sleeping rough to assist them to access services that are available.

There are also Monday morning breakfast sessions and Thursday evening drop- in sessions at the Salvation Army.

Horsham District Council plans to further enhance the support available and has created a task force to implement tailored solutions to support those individuals who are living or sleeping rough on the district’s streets.

If anyone is concerned about someone sleeping rough in England or Wales, they can highlight them using the national referral service on the StreetLink website: http://www.streetlink.org.uk/.

The details provided are sent to the council’s Homeless Outreach team to help us to locate the individual and connect them to support.

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