Roadside tent serves as sad wake-up call

DESPERATION OF HOMELESSNESS FOR ALL TO SEE

JUST a few feet away from one of Tyneside’s busiest stretches of road, a rough sleeper pitches a tent, feeling they have nowhere else to go.

Thousands of commuters will have seen the makeshift home without realising the desperation that may have driven someone to that point.

“You don’t expect to see it in this country, in this day and age, but it’s something we are increasingly seeing,” chief executive of Gateshead-based Oasis Aquila Housing, David Smith, said.

“This should be a wake-up call to the state of the housing crisis. It shouldn’t need a tent on the side of the road to make people realise.

“People have heard about the crisis and they’ve heard the figures, but this makes it hit home.”

The most recent official figures for the number of rough sleepers from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, based on surveys conducted by local councils, found there were 51 rough sleepers in the North East in 2017, up from 45 in 2016.

Eight of those were in Gateshead, up from four the year before. Mr Smith said: “We are aware of people sleeping rough in Gateshead, we have a drop-in centre where we are getting around 1,000 visits a year from people in crisis. We’ve even had people in tents outside of our office. It is something that is happening. The desperation is increasing.”

When contacted, Gateshead Council initially said the tent may have been used by children playing and claimed the area doesn’t have a homelessness issue.

The authority have since acknowledged the tent was being used by a person facing homelessness.

And Mr Smith said homeless people camping out is something which is increasing across the country. He said: “It is something we are seeing in increasing numbers across all major urban areas in the UK.

“Ten years ago I moved to the North East and you would never have seen someone on the street or someone sleeping rough in a tent on the side of the road.

“This picture is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the rough sleeper sleeping in a tent on the side of the road are thousands of people who are sofa-surfing, who are in hostels, who have no home of their own.”

Neither Gateshead Council or the Gateshead Housing Company were able to provide a full comment on the issue.