Council ends unsuitable housing

A council that placed a homeless alcoholic
with mental health needs in a lap dancing pub has vowed to stop
using the temporary accommodation after the story made headlines in
the local papers.

St Albans Council’s housing department, which
also housed children, women fleeing domestic violence and a teenage
mum in the Hertfordshire pub, has now written to a local housing
advice centre run by Shelter saying it will no longer use the
accommodation.

Shelter case worker Helen Stynes said the
centre had complained at least four times about the use of the
pub.

A council spokesperson accepted that the pub
was “far from ideal” and that it had only been used in situations
of “extreme emergency” because of a shortage of good B&Bs in
the area.