A NIGHT shelter for rough sleepers is on the brink of moving into a larger premises, following a spike in demand.

The charity Caring for Communities and People (CCP), which runs the city's shelter, has outgrown its current base at Maggs Day Centre, in Deansway.

The shelter started looking for a new home after it hit maximum capacity several times last month.

The Salvation Army has now offered CCP its building in The Trinity, Worcester, to help deal with the increase in demand.

Ross Webber, project manager for CCP, said the property should be able to hold over 25 rough sleepers, whereas Maggs Day Centre can only house 18 people.

Mr Webber said: "We are hoping it will accommodate well over the most people we have ever had turn up.

"It has more than one room. At Maggs there's only one room.

"We have outgrown Maggs. By the time we are open next winter we will eradicate the issue of overcapacity."

He added that the new building should be able to provide different rooms for men and women.

He hopes the shelter will be able to open in the building this weekend.

The shelter opened on 48 nights this winter, compared with 16 evenings last year.

Mr Webber believes this was partly because the emergency shelter is now available as soon as temperatures drop below 0C, whereas before it only opened when forecasters predicted three consecutive freezing days.

He added: "We had one spell of nine nights [open] and 11 nights. That's an exceptionally cold winter.

"Because of the nature of the [homeless] community the longer you are open the more the word gets around and more people come.

"It would seem the number of people sleeping rough has been increasing as well."

The shelter received 25 people on Tuesday, February 6, 21 on Friday, February 23, 20 on Tuesday, February 27, and 19 on Wednesday, February 28.

This is thought to be the first time in at least five years that the shelter reached maximum capacity.

Those who could not be offered a place were housed at the YMCA in Henwick Road, Worcester.

Mr Webber said he was grateful to Maggs Day Centre for its help and said CCP will continue to run outreach and drop-in services at the site.

CCP, which operates the Homelessness Prevention Engagement Scheme contract for Worcester City Council, is currently finalising the move.