HOMELESS CENTRE HEADS SET TO FACE DRUG CHARGES

Two managers of a day centre for the homeless are today expected to be
charged with allowing their premises to be used for the supply of drugs.

Homeless charities said it was the first time such workers had been arrested
by police and predicted that it would place all managers of hostels and
homeless centres in an impossible position.

The two were arrested after a two-month undercover operation by
Cambridgeshire police in which officers disguised themselves as homeless
people and secretly filmed inside the centre.

Ruth Wyner, 48, the director of the Winter Comfort homeless project, said
that she was "shocked and very confused" to be arrested. She said she had
been working with the homeless for 20 years and had never been arrested for
any offence before.

Mrs Wyner, who has two children, said: "It's a known fact that around half
of the people who are homeless are injecting drugs. We try to stop people
bringing drugs onto the premises but we don't have powers to search people."

Mrs Wyner claimed that the centre had a "stringent policy" on drugs and that
anyone found using or supplying illegal drugs was barred.

Also arrested and on police bail was John Brock, 48, a former college
lecturer who has been project manager at the Overstream House day centre for
seven years.

He said that he was "devastated" by the police's handling of the matter and
was "very anxious" for his family.

The police operation, code named Wythall, was aimed at tackling the growing
problem of heroin use in Cambridge. After the undercover filming, officers
raided six addresses in the city last May and arrested four men and two
women. The six were charged with supplying heroin.

Five days later, Mrs Wyner was arrested and taken in for questioning before
being released on police bail. Mr Brock was arrested the following week.

Yesterday, Kate Head, of the National Homeless Alliance, said that Winter
Comfort was one of 1,000 similar projects around Britain and that the system
would be thrown into "chaos" by the police action.

She accused Cambridgeshire police of contradicting government policy on
social exclusion which stresses that the police should work in co-operation
with homeless agencies in fighting drugs.

"If directors of day centres are to be charged, then that has serious
implications for prison governors and headteachers who are also in charge of
premises where drugs are being supplied," she said.

Mike Goodman, of the drugs charity Release, said: "Not only does this appear
to be an enormous waste of taxpayers' money and a misuse of police resources
but it runs entirely contrary to current thinking on how we should be
responding to drug prevention and the needs of marginalised groups such as
homeless people."

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police confirmed that a file on the two
homeless centre managers had been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. She
said the two currently remained on police bail and could not confirm that
any decision had been taken to charge them.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"