Refuge opens up for three months
A winter refuge to help homeless people during some of the coldest months has opened for a fourth year.
Maidstone Churches Winter Shelter, began operations this week and will run until March 28
uring these 12 weeks, churches and other buildings across the town will offer sanctuary to those without a roof over their heads. As well as somewhere safe to sleep, a hot meal will also be available and the beds are offered at a different venue every night.
Church buildings and the Maidstone Day Centre in Knightrider Street, which offers support during daytime hours, are used.
When the shelter first began in 2013, 10 beds were now on offer, but 2017 will see 15 set up.
It can only be done with the support of volunteers, who staff the service from 9pm to 7am.
Every night four volunteers stay at the shelter, with the evening split so that two are awake and two asleep at any one time. Overnight volunteers sleep in a room away from the guests so they aren’t disturbed.
Project manager Alexa Kersting-Woods said: “Our volunteers don’t necessarily need any experience of working with homeless people or previous volunteering, they just need to want to help some of our town’s most vulnerable people .”
Last year 77 homeless were supported by the project, which had 200 volunteers.
Staff also help people turn their lives around and 17 were helped to find more permanent housing. Figures show around 60 people are living on the streets in the County Town – a number that has stayed constant over the years the shelter has run.
If you can help or want to find out more, contact 01622 296 450.
St. Luke’s Thursday Cubs is holding a charity sleepover in aid of the Maidstone Churches Winter Shelter. The youngsters will be bedding down on cardboard at the Scout hut tonight (Friday, January 6) to raise vital money.