Published: Thursday, 29th May, 2008 7:00am

Homeless charity's "crackhouse" will stay shut

by Neil Manrai

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A NOTORIOUS crackhouse owned by a homeless charity is to shut for good.

Police investigating drug dealing and prostitution swooped on the house in Catherine Street, west Reading, and obtained a closure order in March, and on Tuesday the Reading Single Homeless Project (RSHP) management took the decision not to reopen it.

The move was welcomed yesterday (Wednesday) by Battle ward councillor Tony Jones who said: "I know that local residents will be relieved that this nightmare is now over."

RSHP chief executive Ian Caren said: "RSHP's three-year business plan states that we will move away from shared housing towards independent units of accommodation such as flats and bedsits. As part of this process we are terminating our lease on Catherine Street.

"There have been ongoing discussions with Cllr Jones about the property in Catherine Street and I informed him several months ago that RSHP is moving away from shared housing to flats and bedsits."

During a raid in January,

police found significant traces of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy in all the rooms and in March officers

obtained a three-month closing order from Reading magistrates until June 18.

Despite the fact that the house is boarded up, neighbours had feared RSHP would reopen it once the order expired.

Described as a "living hell", neighbours have spoken about how the once clean and friendly street became a haven for drug-dealers and prostitutes, unfit for children to play in.

Catherine Street resident Gillian Greenwood, 69, who has lived in the road for 50 years, said: "This has been hell for years. RSHP put the wrong people in there.

"This is a community-based street and we all get on. Ordinary people do not want the drugs and prostitution that has gone on there."

She added: "I do not think this will change anything for the area though. The drug-dealers will just start operating in different streets.

"The problem is this is going on everywhere."

Neighbour John Baldock, 43, said: "Since the house has been closed there has been peace and quiet. Different people would go in and out of the house and there would be needles outside. We had police here all the time.

"Everyone in the community

looks after each other and if it ever does reopen we will get together and protest."

Another Catherine Street resident, who did not want to be named, said: "All I can say is hallelujah! A couple of weeks ago when the people who lived there came to collect their belongings, a fight broke out over who owned what, and the police had to be called. This was just a reminder of the nightmare.

"We are very pleased that RSHP have finally surrendered."