A GROUP that helps Southend’s homeless is desperately looking for a new shelter after their “home”

was closed off for demolition.

Soup 4 Southend has been distributing food and supplies to homeless people in the town from a sheltered area at the former Focus Youth Centre, in Short Street, Southend, every Sunday for the last three years.

The building closed at the beginning of last year and is earmarked for demolition.

Although volunteers never had permission to use the shelter, there had never been a problem. But they arrived at the venue this week to find it enclosed by fencing, hoarding and tape, denying them access.

A spokesman for the group, who did not wish to be named, said: “We knew the centre was going to get knocked down at some point.

“But we are way down the food chain, so no-one was going to tell us when.

“We don’t know where we are going to go and desperately need a new venue as soon as possible.

“We don’t mind distributing on the street but, when it’s raining, everyone gets wet – by contrast, we’ve never noticed a dip in numbers on rainy days at Focus, because we’ve been under cover.”

Focus was the last councilrun youth centre in Southend, but the decision to close it was made at the end of 2013 in order to save £150,000, which would otherwise be spent on the running costs of the dilapidated building.

The council chose to support independent youth groups in the town centre, such as the Balmoral Centre, Trinity Family Centre and Coleman Street Chapel.

A council spokesman said internal demolition was under way at Focus and the building itself would be knocked down at the end of the month.

The spokesman added that once this had taken place, the land would be used temporarily as an extension to the adjacent car park, before forming part of the Better Queensway regeneration project.

For more information on Soup 4 Southend, and to suggest alternative venues for their Sunday distribution service, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/ groups/soup4southend or tweet @soup4southend