A WINCHESTER hostel that was at the centre of an enquiry after a 17-year-old took her own life there has closed.

A2Dominion’s supported housing in City Road has been boarded up and set to go on the market after the provider said it was surplus to requirements.

It comes less than two months after an inquest into the death of Kesia Waller heard a wealth of issues surrounding staff and care at the supported housing. The teenager was found hanging on January 25, 2020.

The inquest was told that the manager at the facility was often “threatening” and heard from Dieu-Donne Salumah, a senior support worker at City Road who failed to cut Ms Waller down, despite being urged to by a 999 call handler.

During the hearing A2Dominion’s director of supported housing Joanna Evans said that the company has learned from the incident, which she claimed was the first of its kind to happen in any of its properties.

The provider has said that the closure of the City Road site is not connected to the death of Kesia.

A spokesperson for the housing provider said: “The City Road site is up for sale, as it is surplus to A2Dominion’s local contract with Hampshire County Council.

“The site was empty at the start of the pandemic. It was then used to house homeless people in Winchester, after we received an urgent request from Winchester City Council last year to support their response to Covid.

“The accommodation was subsequently used to house people particularly at risk due to being street homeless.

“Now that the council has been able to move all of these people to alternative accommodation in the city, the property was handed back to A2Dominion last week and has been boarded up as a security measure until a sale is agreed.”

The property is not yet up for sale but the provider’s asset management team is arranging valuations and “it should be up for sale soon”.

Hampshire County Council Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Roz Chadd, said: “The county council regularly reviews the services it commissions to ensure the best possible outcomes for the individuals we support, and this includes services such as accommodation placements for children and young people who are being supported by Children’s Services.

“In recent years and following an extensive analysis of placements of young people in Hampshire, Children’s Services found that the most effective way to support young people who have medium to low needs to thrive and develop the greatest possible level of independence, is to accommodate them in ‘supported lodgings’, where young people live with a host in the host’s own home.

“The county council has therefore decreased its provision of ‘shared living’ accommodation – which is where several young people who are supported by Children’s Services would have their own rooms and shared facilities, such as City Road in Winchester – and is instead focusing on increasing the availability of supported lodgings accommodation, to help improve outcomes for the individuals we support.”