Homeless people in the St Albans district are getting more support to re-establish their lives and their self-esteem following the appointment of a new Outreach Worker based at the Open Door homelessness service.

Zoe Sigler is the new Safer Streets Outreach Worker at the Open Door charity in St Albans, which is managed by Hightown Praetorian & Churches Housing Association, and works to ensure that no-one need sleep rough in St Albans.

Zoe will be supporting the town’s rough sleepers - helping and advising them on moving on from homelessness into supported housing, finding work and having more settled lives.

Her appointment comes as Government figures reveal a 15% rise in the number of people sleeping rough in England in 2014 - the fourth successive increase since 2010. Open Door believes there are about 10 rough sleepers in St Albans at any given time.

The charity provides accommodation and a meal for up to 12 people each night (though they can accommodate an extra five people a night when temperatures drop to around freezing) as well as a daytime drop-in centre, offering lunch and various support services, used by around 20 vulnerable people each day.

Zoe has been working with the homeless since 2010 when she joined Open Door as a part-time volunteer co-ordinator of around 80 volunteers.

More recently she was a full-time Support Worker at Hightown’s Mably House in Hatfield, which has 35 flats offering temporary accommodation for the homeless in the Hatfield and Welwyn area.

She said: "I have missed the challenge of working with rough sleepers - some of the most socially excluded individuals I have ever worked with. I am looking forward to supporting vulnerable people with a variety of needs.

"I want to create ‘out of the box solutions’ to any problems rough sleepers are facing and ensure they receive fair access to all services, as well as being able to reconnect with their families and friends."