St Albans Mayor visits Open Door homeless shelter

CITY centre homeless shelter Open Door had a chance to show off its facilities when it was visited by the Mayor of St Albans and her husband.

Cllr Maxine Crawley along with Consort Warwick spent a morning at the charity located on Bricket Road where they toured the facilities and met staff including Liz Jones and Joan Bailey, who are respectively manager and chair of the charity.

Ms Bailey commented: “It was a real pleasure to welcome the Mayor to Open Door, with her Consort Warwick Crawley. She has been a Patron of the Open Door Charity this year and we have been very grateful for her support and interest in the work we do.

“We offer vital services to over 800 homeless people each year and aim to help them move on to more permanent accommodation and more settled lives. So we rely heavily on our friends and supporters, who donate to the charity, fundraise for us and volunteer to work at Open Door providing food and friendship.”

The Mayor said: “Warwick and I spent a wonderful morning at Open Door. We were very impressed with all of the facilities, in particular the IT workstations and the single bedrooms.

“We all agreed that it was important to try to break down the social isolation that homeless people feel and the attitudes of the general populus towards the homeless.”

She added: “Open Door not only provides a bed but the staff and volunteers also work through many problems the residents have so that they can find a permanent home and hopefully a job too in the future.

“Their work is invaluable and it was a pleasure to spend time with them.”