West London YMCA and Trinity Church, Harrow, are to open a winter shelter for homeless men aged between 18 and 65 in December.

|TOP|The centre, to be situated in central Harrow, will open on Wednesday 1st December and will be open every night from 8pm until 8am until Monday 28th February 2006.

The men will be provided with a hot meal every night and breakfast every morning by volunteers, with bedding and food also donated by volunteers.

The staff team at the centre will also be available for the men to talk with on the issues that have lead to homelessness with a range of services on offer to the men including counselling and help in finding permanent accommodation through the rent deposit scheme.

The scheme, now in its third year running, has proved successful in the past, with one man helped to re-obtain his driving licence as proof of ID, his medical card in order to obtain treatment for a serious leg injury, as well as secure temporary accommodation.

The YMCA and Trinity Church are hoping for similar success this year with the high numbers of homeless reported in the area by the London Borough of Harrow.

West London YMCA Harrow Programme Manager, Ian Pike, said: “It’s great to have the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.

He added: “It is rewarding for us and for the homeless person to see them take the next step forward.”

Earlier in the month, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced that more than £2million will be given out to innovative schemes to develop new ways of tackling homelessness more effectively.

Nineteen projects across England have been allotted a share of the funding to enable them to develop new ways of preventing homelessness and reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation.

The Homelessness Innovation Fund is part of the Government strategy to cut the number of households in temporary accommodatin by 50 per cent by 2010.