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A homeless charity has moved its shelter into a grand Edinburgh hotel on Princes Street to keep people safe during the coronavirus crisis.

The Care Shelter, run by the Bethany Christian Trust announced today (April 16) that they are relocating to the Old Waverley Hotel.

Rough sleepers will be given single room accommodation and three meals a day at the plush, three-star Victorian hotel in the city centre.

Bethany Christian Trust asked members of the public to direct anyone seen sleeping rough to the hotel as part of a new scheme they are running with Edinburgh City Council.

A standard single room at the grand Victorian hotel is 12 square metres and comes with an en-suite bathroom and “offers contemporary features whilst retaining traditional levels of comfort and style” according to the Old Waverley's website.

The description continues: “All rooms feature Wi-Fi and flat-screen HDTVs with Freeview channels. The bathroom has a fantastically opulent feel with Madura Gold Granite surfaces.”

The Care Shelter said it has extended its service, which would usually end in May, for a further two months in the new venue, until early July 2020.

In a statement released today, Bethany said its Care Shelter team of 14 support staff have moved to the Old Waverley with council staff working flexibly at short-notice to join the team.

The Old Waverley is closed to the general public until further notice but the website shows the price for one person saying one night in April or May starts at around £100.

Alasdair Bennett, Chief Executive of Bethany Christian Trust, commented: “The Care Shelter has provided 10,000 bed spaces to 730 unique individuals over the last 200 nights, and we are relieved to now also be able to offer self-contained en-suite accommodation to men and women who have already suffered so much without having to be on the streets any longer.

“I am very grateful to the support of an anonymous trust who are providing the resources to extend the staffing into the Summer, the Council for their proactivity in procuring the hotel beds, the Scottish Government for supporting the initiative with significant additional bed purchases, and the Old Waverley Hotel team for stepping forward to make such a positive difference in saving lives.

"This means an amazing amount to the people we support and the next step is to turn this moment into permanently improved solutions for rough sleeping predicaments in our shared national homelessness response.”

(Image: Bethany Christian Trust)

Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, Councillor Adam McVey, said: “We’ve been working with a number of hotels to provide us with suitable and safe accommodation to help us house anyone without a home. The response has been encouraging and we’ve now secured more than 200 bed spaces in hotels across the city and 66 additional private flats.

“The shelter operated by Bethany Christian Trust is an important refuge for people who might otherwise find themselves rough sleeping, for any number of reasons. These are some of our most vulnerable people and with the outbreak continuing, we’ve been partnering with Bethany to find an alternative place for the shelter they run.

(Image: Bethany Christian Trust)

“The Old Waverley Hotel is the ideal city centre spot and I’m grateful that they’ve partnered with us on this. Edinburgh is a city that pulls together in times of need and this is a perfect example of that attitude.

"Our thanks go to Bethany’s staff and volunteers, who will be on hand day and night at the new shelter to provide meals and a relaxed space for those in need during this challenging time.”