The chief executive of Dacorum’s homelessness charity DENS has said the future of its current night shelter depends on demand, if plans for a 41-bed hostel go ahead.
Andrew Liversidge hopes that if the hostel on Redbourn Road is permitted by planning bosses and DENS are allowed to manage it as expected, there will no longer be a need for the night shelter in Apsley.
He said: “The idea is that the night shelter becomes the hostel, that will be the best protocol to help people reclaim their lives. If they have a place to live and work from they have a better chance of getting their life back again. But we don’t yet know what impact universal credit will have on the number of homeless people in Dacorum. Until we know what is workable we don’t know exactly what demand we have.”
DENS’ day centre on Queensway will still provide help and support and will operate as normal.