180 rough-sleepers sought shelter on coldest night of year
THE number of rough-sleepers seeking shelter in Manchester city centre rocketed another 45 per cent between November and February, according to the town hall’s homelessness chief.
Deputy council leader Sue Murphy said on the coldest night of the year 180 people sought accommodation, up from the 124 counted in the autumn and a number that represents a 25-fold increase on 2010.
She claimed Andy Burnham’s flagship ‘bed every night’ scheme – which aims to provide enough shelter for every single rough sleeper in the region – had actually played a part in increasing numbers. Some people had been put up by the council in hotels thanks to a lack of space, she added, but insisted that ‘by hook or by crook’ the town hall had managed to put them all up.
“On the coldest night of the year, which I think was February 2, we had 180 people approach us for accommodation and we don’t have 180 beds. Our rough-sleeper count in the autumn was 124. So we are having far more people coming forward.
“We managed to accommodate everybody, by hook or by crook, by using hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation where we needed to, but the demand feels as if it’s increasing. And ‘bed every night’ has actually brought people out to seek accommodation.”
She added: “That’s both good and difficult. It’s good, because people are coming forward. But it’s difficult because we don’t have the volume of accommodation or the budget to finance that given the amount of cuts we have had to face.”
Figures tabled to the meeting showed 314 individual people have been accommodated in the city under Mr Burnham’s scheme since November. Of those, 45pc had a last known address within Manchester itself and 35pc – 109 – were from outside. The remaining 20pc did not provide information. Of the 109, 60 were from UK areas outside Greater Manchester, with Liverpool the most common last-known address. The rest had last held an address abroad, with Poland accounting for 12.