From next month, Wirral Council will get a share of new grant to help sort accommodation for those who are at risk of becoming homeless.

The new grant will give councils, such as Wirral, the power to prevent homelessness in the first place. This will go towards employing a homelessness prevention or tenancy support officer to work closely with people who are at risk of losing their homes. Under the previous system, Wirral would not have received any cash this year, but, under the new Flexible Homelesness Support Grant, they will receive £82,480 in April and a further £91,800 next year to help prevent homelessness.

Wirral Councillor Ian Lewis told the Liverpool Echo: “Under the existing system, funding can only be used when someone is already homeless, rather than preventing it happening in the first place. With this extra cash, I hope we now be able to do more to stop some of our residents becoming homeless or ending up rough sleeping in the cities.”

Communities Minister, Marcus Jones, said: “We’ve brought in a raft of measures over the last few months, from funding homelessness projects in 225 local authorities to changing the law by backing Bob Blackman’s Homelessness Reduction Bill to support for more people at risk of losing their homes.”

“We’re now going further and giving councils greater flexibility, so they can move away from costly intervention when a household is already homeless, to preventing this happening in the first place. That doesn’t make sense and was long overdue for change.”

Feedback, both good and bad, are vital to any organisation that seeks to constantly develop and adapt its services to the changing needs of its clients. And Venus is no different.

Venus’ mission is to empower, promote and support women, young women and their children in developing their potential, recognising their choices, achieving their goals and challenging injustice. But, in an ever-changing world, they’re constantly looking for ways to improve.

Lorraine Webb, chief executive of Venus, said: “We’re always, ALWAYS actively seeking our service users’ feedback and evaluation of the services we provide.“

“Comments, compliments, suggestions, feedback and complaints help us to monitor and review our services and wider organisation from a different perspective. The views and opinions of people who access our services, who fund or commission them, who refer to them or have any interest at all in our communities and the impact of the work we deliver are vital to us and feed into the way we develop, deliver and manage our services.”

One former service user, who is currently training to volunteer with Venus, recently left a message via Facebook…

“Last week I seemed to be hit every day with some bad news. Including the death of someone I loved dearly. Today I wasn’t in the best place going into Training. But I’m glad I did. Going into Venus Centre is like a Therapy Session. The girls in there are like my extended Family. Yet I’m learning so much about other people’s problems as well as them helping me deal with my own. Wouldn’t want to Train anywhere else girls. Thank You x.”

Lorraine commented: “How lovely is that? We’re thrilled when we get any feedback whatsoever, so if you have time, please take a moment to get in touch, tell us how we can improve, what works, what doesn’t, what would help you, what has helped…anything at all, we’re all ears!”

If you would like to share your opinion on Venus’ services, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch. You can find them on social media such as Facebook, twitter, and Youtube.

You can also post feedback on their website (www.venuscharity.org ), you can email, phone, drop in to the centre and speak to a worker, or use their suggestion box. Or send a letter to them by the good old Royal Mail! Whichever way you choose to get in touch, they’re listening!

Homeless charities have been sharing information with the Home Office about rough sleepers, leading to their detention or forced deportation, a new report has claimed.

The report, Round Up, claims that Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) patrols are out targeting rough sleepers in London. But the officers rely on the active collaboration of the Mayor, local councils, and homelessness charities. Charity outreach workers set out to help homeless people but, through a creeping process of changes, they are being turned into informers.

According to Corporate Watch, outreach teams from charities St Mungo’s, Thames Reach and Change Grow Live (CGL, formerly CRI) conduct regular joint “visits” with ICE officers, as often as fortnightly in central boroughs of London. Joint visits in just eight of these areas led to 133 rough sleepers being detained, while 127 people were deported in under a year in Westminster alone.

Charity bosses say their role is to persuade non-UK rough sleepers to leave “voluntarily”. But their outreach teams also routinely pass on locations of non-UK rough sleepers to ICE through the London-wide CHAIN database and other local co-operation agreements.

The Greater London Authority has contracted St Mungo’s and Thames Reach under “payment by numbers” schemes where fees depend on the number of rough sleepers they get out of the country. EU and other European Economic Area (EEA) nationals are the main targets, as they make up nearly half of London rough sleepers. Migrants from Romania, Poland, and other East European countries are particularly affected.

Deporting non-UK rough sleepers is at the forefront of Prime Minister Theresa May’s “hostile environment” approach, where immigration controls are spreading across schools, hospitals, and housing. In May last year, the Home Office tightened the rules so that rough sleepers from Europe can be arrested for deportation if found sleeping rough on just one night.

According to Home Office rules, European Union citizens and their family members have the right to enter and live in other Member States. Where admission is permitted, an EU citizen is allowed to remain in the UK for up to three months from the date of entry, provided they do not become “a burden on the social assistance system of the UK or abuse their rights.”

But Green Party GLA member, Sian Berry, told The Independent homeless charities should not be asked to contribute to the Government’s “toxic” policy or facilitate forced removals. “Fearing forced removal has the potential to make rough sleepers feel they can’t approach charity-run services that they desperately need and could push destitute people into even worse situations,” she said. “Charities should be left to help people, not undermine their core purpose in this way.”

More young people who can’t find work will end up on the streets as the Government goes ahead with plans to end housing support payments for under-21s.

Despite protests by homelessness charities for the Prime Minister, Theresa May, to drop the policy, officials published secondary legislation to go ahead with the plans on Friday, while most MPs were at home in their constituencies.

But in a bizarre spin, a spokesperson for the Department of Works and Pensions says this will actually be good for young people!

The spokesperson said: “We want to make sure that 18 to 21-year-olds do not slip straight into a life on benefits, which is why we are helping young people get the training, skills and experience they need to move into a job and build a career.”

“This government is delivering on its commitment to ensure young people in the benefit system face the same choices as young people who work but may not be able to afford to leave home. We know that personal circumstances will differ so we have worked closely with charities and the housing sector to develop a fair and robust set of exemptions to protect the most vulnerable young people.”

But critics have hit out at the plan. Roger Harding, director of campaigns, policy and communications at Shelter, warned that despite the exemptions “tampering with this vital safety net will result in more young people being left to fend for themselves on the streets”.

“The option of being able to live with your parents is not one that is open to everyone. These cuts will affect those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in desperately difficult situations,” he said. “Whether these young people are escaping an abusive household or thrown out because of their sexuality, they’ll now have the added, sometimes impossible, burden of having to prove they can’t go home. If they can’t, their only option may be to sleep rough.”

Labour’s shadow Secretary of State for Housing, John Healey, said the policy would make homelessness worse. “This disgraceful cut to housing support will leave thousands of young people with nowhere to go. Many could end up on the streets,” he warned.

“These young people are old enough to fight for their country but, in Theresa May’s Britain, not old enough to get the same help with housing costs as everyone else. Ministers would do well to remember that the shameful doubling of rough sleeping since 2010 is a direct result of decisions they have made. With this decision they will make the scandal of rising homelessness worse still.”

Believe it or not, 96-year-old Peggy Maskrey has been helping homeless people at the Charles Thompson Mission in Birkenhead for an incredible 80 years!

In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Peggy said: “I used to come to the meetings here and use the facilities when it was run by Ms. (Annie) Thompson, a lovely and gentle lady. She gave me the job of giving out buns, and later making tea. And I’m still making tea today!”

Peggy says she benefited from help offered at Mission as a young girl when it was a mission for poor children. She said: “When I was a young girl it was the only place I could come for a warm and a bun. I was one of the poor children it helped and I was so grateful to it. I came with my mum first – I went to her meetings, and then when I realised there were children’s activities I went to those.”

“There was so much going on – Band of Hope on Monday, Boys’ Club on Tuesday, Adults’ meeting on Wednesday, Magic Lantern show for children on Thursday and Girls’ club on Friday. And it was the only place in Birkenhead that gave out anything – today there is so much help and food given out, some people don’t know they’re born. Thousands upon thousands of people have got reason to be thankful for this place.”

When she was 16, Peggy decided she wanted to help those in need who called at the Mission, on Hemingford Street, and later, despite having her own family and her own job, she continued to find the time.

She says: “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. And I still enjoy it. We had 22 people in this morning and I gave them all soup, cake and a cup of tea. And I’ve been going through the clothes people have kindly donated. I’m here two days every week, Wednesday and Friday, and on the second Sunday of the month I’m here for a service – and I love it! I used to come here every day, and I wish I still could – but while the spirit is willing my body is weak.”

Peggy also reveals she signed the pledge (to abstain from alcohol) at the age of 10, and says: “I never wanted to drink or smoke” – although she later admitted, with a smile, that she had tried sherry as well as shandy in her teens – “I used to say ‘mostly lemonade, please!”

She was nominated to be featured in the Echo’s ‘Scouse Proud’ series by fellow volunteer Amy Stanley, who told us: “We are a charity for the homeless and over the years Peggy has served meals to thousands of people and changed the lives of so many. She inspires us every single day and still has no plans to retire.”

Mission manager Bernie Frost paid his own tribute to Peggy: “Peggy likes to work in the background and doesn’t realise that she makes an enormous contribution to the Mission. She is faithful and steadfast – and she’s not to be messed with!”