A HOSTEL for Oxford's homeless is to recruit three extra staff after sharing in a £1.5m Government handout.

The 91-bed hostel run by the English Churches Housing Group charity, in Speedwell Street, Oxford, cares for men aged over 25 with a history of drug abuse and mental health problems.

Business manager Alison Baggott said: "I think it is wonderful, it came as a complete surprise. It means we can take clients with greater difficulties and assist them into permanent housing - what we should be doing.

"At the moment we have a direct access facility so we take people who come to the door, but we can only take those whose support needs we can meet with our existing support team."

The number of full-time staff at the hostel will increase from 26 to 29 people.

Miss Baggott added: "Our job is about taking people and giving them the motivation to acquire life skills to live independently."

The extra staff will be provided as part of a Government initiative to help people who spend nights sleeping rough on the street.

Oxford was identified in a recent report as having a significant homeless problem and funding has been offered to tackle it until March 1999.

The Rough Sleepers Initiative began in 1990 and provides accommodation, resettlement and other support services for the homeless. It works in conjunction with the Department of Health's Homeless Mentally Ill initiative and the Drug and Alcohol Specific Grant, giving people on the streets the opportunity for healthcare.

Outreach workers in Oxford speak to rough sleepers and try to persuade them to spend a night in a hostel.

The £1.5m, announced by housing minister Hilary Armstrong, will be spent in 21 areas throughout England.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.