How could they? Humiliated and left to die... the police hero in a homeless hostel paid for by you

SLUMPED in a chair at a hostel for the homeless, a dying man is cruelly humiliated by other residents as staff join in the mockery and take snapshots.

These appalling scenes occurred in ‘supported’ accommodation, where some of society’s most vulnerable people are supposed to receive help and protection, costing the taxpayer at least £43 million a year in England alone.

But there was no support for Adrian Bill, a decorated former police officer whose life had spiralled downwards with drug and alcohol problems.

Just a few hours after these sickening images were filmed undercover for an ITV documentary, Mr Bill, 53, was dead from pneumonia, exacerbated by substance abuse.

Assuming he was merely drunk, some other tenants in the run-down hostel in Birmingham piled books, a plastic warning sign and a pot plant on top of him, and giggling security guards took photos on their mobile phones.

As other tenants began to realise the seriousness of Mr Bill’s condition, they repeatedly called in vain for staff to summon help, but one guard simply shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘He’s breathing,’ and walked off.

One security guard not involved in the incident observed the next day: ‘That is his last day on earth and they treat him like s***’.

The ‘supported housing’ system for the homeless was set up by the Labour Government in 2003 to help provide people on the bottom rung of society with a chance to climb out of destitution and poverty.

The organisations running the hostels – many of them charities – are given as much as three times the usual rate of housing benefit in taxpayers’ money for each tenant, in some cases more than £200 a week.

In return, they are supposed to provide not only safe and secure accommodation, on, but also ‘support’ to help meet their tenants’ medical, mental health and training needs.

Many doubtless fulfil that role, but angry MPs last night said the sector was open to abuse and needs urgent reform.

Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘Last year, we began to look into this area as we needed to make some changes and it suddenly became very apparent to us at the Department of Work and Pensions – who pay the bills for it but don’t run it – that this system was open to enormous abuse.

‘As this investigation has found, too many places get the money without doing anything in terms of support. We need to safeguard the good charities which actually do the work, of which there are many, and make sure they get the money.’ The death of Mr Bill was the worst example exposed during filming of the programme in a shameful litany of abuse and neglect in the Birmingham hostel and another in Bristol. It also revealed:

Claims of a bullying culture by residents, unchecked by staff.

Residents openly smoking ‘legal highs’ and other drugs.

Sleeping accommodation infested with bed bugs in one hostel.

Security staff aiming abuse at the homeless people they are supposed to care for. Chaotic ‘support sessions’ for vulnerable people with no privacy. Undercover reporters for ITV’s

‘That is his last day on earth and they treat him like s***’