A HOMELESS shelter that more than 2,500 people said they wanted to reopen will be bulldozed by the New Year.

Lucy Faithfull House closed in February 2016 after Oxfordshire County Council withdrew £500,000 of funding.

Oxford City Council’s Green Party leader David Thomas said it would be ‘heartless’ to knock it down over the winter and encouraged the city council to hand it over to groups who would open it temporarily.

But the council said it would be irresponsible to house homeless people, many of whom have complex needs, in the building with no expert help.

In April, it turned down a petition signed by more than 2,500 people and said ‘no need [had been] demonstrated’ to see it reopened.

The city council’s executive board member for housing, councillor Mike Rowley, said on Monday: “You cannot just put rough sleepers, many of them with very complex needs, in a deteriorating empty building with no services or utilities and leave them there without professional support. It would be extremely unsafe and an abdication of our duty of care to those people."

Mr Rowley said it is expected the building, which had bed spaces for 61 homeless people when it was open, will have been knocked down by the start of 2018 at the latest.

The city council plans to use the land on Speedwell Street to build flats, half of which will be affordable housing, through its own housing company.

Mr Rowley added: "The Lucy Faithfull House building is unsafe and unsuitable for any use. Replacing it with affordable homes would help the other homeless services, because the lack of affordable homes means people are stuck in temporary accommodation as they can't afford to rent."

Oxford has seen a rapid increase of rough sleepers from the Cherwell District over recent months, to the extent that more than half of about 100 people living on the streets have moved from there.

People moving from different districts will not automatically be entitled to help from Oxford City Council, which said 167 beds will be provided this winter. In Cherwell District, 13 beds are provided.

Lucy Faithfull House was leased by the city council in 1976. It brought all interest in the property in August as a freeholder for £450,000. Demolition of the building is estimated to cost about £300,000.

It was previously run by the English Churches Housing Association and then brought by the Riverside Housing Group. In 2010/11 the housing management of the building was operated by the Riverside Housing Group but the Oxfordshire County Council-funded Two Saints Housing Association provided support services.

The council has maintained that the beds provided for homeless people over the winter represent more than has been offered over recent years.