EXTRA funding for a homeless facility in Chester has been announced.

Crispin House emergency night shelter in Nicholas Street has been awarded £55,000 through the Places of Change programme.

The hostel is run by Chester Aid to the Homeless (Cath) charity and can house up to eight men.

The money, which is given out by the Department of Communities and Local Government, will be used to upgrade hostel dormitories into single rooms and develop existing medical facilities along with education and training.

The idea of the grant is to transform hostels into “not just a place for the night, but a place back into the world of work.”

Chester City Council Principal Housing Officer Paul Simpson said: “One of the main problems at the hostel was that in two rooms there were three beds which didn’t give people their own space.

“This grant will enable us to extend the facilities in those bedrooms.”

Chief Executive of Cath, Robert Bisset, added: “If you asked an adult in the mainstream community to share a room with a stranger they would refuse, so I believe it is just and proper that money is spent on the hostel to give people individual sleeping spaces that we would all expect ourselves.”

Work is expected to start this year.

The hostel grant comes weeks after funding was announced for a six-bed women’s hostel in Blacon.

Currently there are no emergency beds for women in Cheshire.

Chester City Council recognised the need for a direct-access women’s hostel in its Homelessness Strategy for 2003-08 but missed its pledge to establish the facility by 2005.

Now a suitable site for women’s services has been identified in Blacon Avenue and initial funding has been provided by Muir Housing Association.

The centre is likely to be up and running by April 2009.