A PROJECT tackling anti-social behaviour in St Austell has been praised by the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner.

The initiative is being run by Harbour Housing, a charity which provides accommodation and support to people who would otherwise face life on the street.

Commissioner Alison Hernandez visited the charity at Cosgarne Hall in St Austell to find out more about its Hotspots Outreach Project which tackles anti-social behaviour in the town centre.

The project has a bespoke outreach assessment vehicle, which carries equipment and supplies to cope with a range of homeless needs including surviving winter warm packs, a defibrillator and Naloxone, a specialist medication that reverses an opioid overdose.

The commissioner was told that, most importantly, members of the project team are the ears on the ground for many who have nobody to turn to for help.

Harbour Housing group operations director Malcolm Putko and head of special services Kate Moss discussed the charity’s work with the commissioner who also heard first-hand from two Harbour Housing residents about rough sleeping and female domestic violence.

Ms Hernandez not only endorsed the outreach initiative but said she would like to see it rolled out in towns and cities across the South West facing anti-social behaviour problems.

During the visit, the commissioner said: “I’m here in St Austell to visit Harbour Housing and have brought with me some elected councillors from Torbay who have just taken over the ownership of a hostel and manage it with the staff.

“I thought it would be really good to share some good practice of what happens here at Harbour Housing to see if that might be able to help Torbay.

“I am really excited about what I have seen, and this is really the sort of thing that I like, and it is visible.

“I hear from many people seeing vulnerable people on the streets, and they think who is helping them and why is nobody doing anything?”

Ms Hernandez told the Harbour Housing team: “This initiative is visible, and you can be seen doing something and that gives a feel-good factor too. You have shown that you are reaching out to people on the streets – in my patch there’s no longer hardly any outreach so I think it’s fantastic and I’m going to take this away today as a model and see how we can progress that across the whole of Devon and Cornwall.

“One of the beauties of this role is being able to help people communicate with each other to get the best for our communities. Homelessness isn’t going away, and we need to do our best to help those people who are struggling living on the streets and find them the right support. This is certainly a step in the right direction to make that happen.”

Kate Moss said: “We are never going to completely stop anti-social behaviour, but we can be a beacon for reducing it in our communities and it was a pleasure to share this with the police and crime commissioner and her party.”