A homeless charity is urgently seeking a new home after it said that its seafront premises was closing for repairs.
St Mungo’s has already started rehousing people who were staying at the Smart Sea View Hotel, in St Catherine’s Terrace, in Kingsway, Hove.
The key concerns are around the electrical wiring although the operation of the hostel has also attracted complaints from neighbours affected by anti-social behaviour.
The homelessness charity said: “St Mungo’s, working with Brighton and Hove City Council, is looking for new premises to run its No Second Night Out Service (NSNO) in the city.
“NSNO, which has been operating from a property in St Catherine’s Terrace, in Hove, since October 2021, provides urgent accommodation for people who’ve been sleeping rough and is vital in helping people as they move off the streets and start their recovery from homelessness.
“Repair works needed on the building, which is owned by a private landlord, mean that a new home is now being sought.”
St Mungo’s Regional Head, Rahul Sen, said: “We regularly undertake evaluations and inspections of the properties we use as part of our routine maintenance programme.
“Our most recent inspection of this building highlighted some concerns so we – in consultation with (the council) – have decided to leave the building while more extensive inspections can be undertaken and the scale of the work needed can be further assessed.”
St Mungo’s said: “So far, the majority of the residents have been found alternative accommodation and it is hoped that the remaining clients will be accommodated elsewhere over the coming few days.”
Mr Sen said: “NSNO is invaluable in helping people get on the path to recovery from homelessness.
“It provides rapid assessment, reconnection and move-on services for people sleeping rough the first time in one place, so we are keen to find an alternative premises that we can operate from.
“It does mean that there has been some disruption for the people staying there as they are moved into temporary accommodation such as B&Bs and other smaller properties and we are doing all we can to make the move as smooth as possible.
“We will continue to support all our clients going forward and remain hopeful we can find a new home soon.”
Councillor David Gibson, who co-chairs the council’s housing committee, said: “Our ‘No Second Night Out’ offer is an important service helping people move off the streets.
“It’s short-term support set-up to offer urgent accommodation for people who’ve had the misfortune to end up sleeping rough.
“It’s essential that we offer people short-term accommodation quickly before they’re impacted by the wider difficulties many people who sleep rough for the longer term can often face.
“We’ve been working with St Mungo’s to ensure they can continue to provide the service. It’s an urgent priority for us to work with St Mungo’s and help them find replacement premises as quickly as possible to ensure we can avoid an increase in the numbers of people needing to sleep rough in the city.”
The routine inspection highlighted concerns around electrical works and are being discussed with the building’s owners.
When St Mungo’s had the open day for neighbouring residents to ask questions, the swathes of paint flaking from the ceiling and the danglin smoke alarm was there for all to see. Brighton and Hove council had rented this hostel for eye watering amounts of money for 3 years up to October 2020. The place was in a very poor state of repair then and riddled with safety issues. BHCC turned a blind eye and happily shelled out the mountains of our cash to the landlord. Since October 2020, St Mungo’s have been operating the service for rough sleepers and they too just turned a blind eye to the safety violations. Be it directly, or indirectly via service operators, BHCC has a dismal history of spending millions on slum hostel accommodation that is not suitable for occupation and wilfully turns a blind eye to inferior standards and safety violations. BHCC crucify private landlords if they breach any rule, but lines the pockets of the slum landlords with whom they have troublingly cosy relationships all the time looking the other way. There are different rules for different people in this city. All the hallmarks of corruption.