KEIGHLEY housing charity Keyhouse Project – which has helped many thousands of people facing homelessness during the past three decades – has gone into administration.

The charity has stopped providing services from its Keighley base and administrators have been appointed to handle its affairs.

Another organisation, entitled Foundation, has taken over Key House’s contracts with the Legal Aid Agency.

Homelessness services across the district – for several years provided by Keyhouse with Bradford Council funding – are now being handled by Horton Housing.

The reason for Keyhouse being placed in administration, only weeks after the closure of one of its homelessness hostels in Wesley Place, is unclear at this stage.

Insolvency practitioners FG Newton and ET Kerr were appointed joint administrators of Keyhouse Project on June 22, and are currently managing the charity’s affairs, business and property.

News of the administration was revealed in a statement on Keyhouse’s website and pasted to the door of its offices in Skipton Road, Keighley.

The statement says Foundation will in the short term provide advice services in Keighley, but people are also advised to instead go to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Keyhouse was set up in the early 1980s to run a hostel for homeless young people in Belgrave Road, Highfield, and over the years expanded massively to work as far afield as Halifax, Skipton, York, Scarborough and Richmond.

The charity’s services included debt, benefits and housing advice; rented accommodation; affordable and supported housing; empty homes regeneration; housing for refugees and single parents; NVQ training; and hate-crime reporting.

A hint of problems came last month when it was revealed in the Keighley News that a long-established homelessness hostel at Wesley Place, near Ingrow railway station, had closed after Keyhouse gave the owners notice it is no longer needed.

The KN made repeated attempts to contact Keyhouse for comment, but received no response by the time of going to print.

Horton Housing Association, based in Little Horton Lane, Bradford, recently took over the Bradford Council contract to provide services for homeless people in Keighley and Bradford.

Keighley MP Kris Hopkins said: “I understand from Bradford Council that the Keyhouse Project declined an invitation to take part in the latest tendering exercise to provide local homeless services.

“However, the successful bidder is delivering support to 22 units of accommodation in Keighley, which includes one and two-bedroom properties. I will continue to monitor these matters very closely.”

The administrators were also not available to comment before the Keighley News went to press.

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