According to Simon On The Streets director Clive Sandle, there are anything between 50 to 100 people who don't have anywhere to sleep at night in Leeds.
The organisation has been operating in Leeds for 11 years and offers help and support to rough sleepers, with an outreach-based service that provides a soup run, breakfast club, a peer support group and an intensive programme of support for people who are difficult to reach and have fallen through the net of other services.
As part of a sponsored sleep out to raise money and awareness of the organisation's work last night, we met Paul, a former rough sleeper in Leeds and reformed drug addict.
Hitting rock bottom
Just how had Paul - and many others like him - hit rock bottom?
He said he had held a responsible job but family problems had been getting on top of him. One night a 'friend' had offered him some heroine - and the downward spiral started from there. He lost his job and his family - and ultimately seven years of his life was spent, on and off, being a rough sleeper in Leeds.
Paul described the experience of being a homeless drug addict as being like Groundhog Day. He said:
"Every day was the same - you'd go out on the streets, make enough money to buy your fix in Ebor Gardens or Chapeltown, then go back into the city centre and try raise more money. You just couldn't break out of the cycle.
"You have got to get to the point where you can't fall any lower and where you say enough is enough."
Worst day on the streets
Paul - who said one of his favourite haunts used to be a fire escape at the back of a city centre pub, described one of his worst days on the streets as when he was arrested by the police under the Vagrancy Act. He said:
"Being arrested means you spend half a day in a police station having your fingerprints taken and stuff. That's half a day when you're not making money to pay for your fix. Your body's screaming out for the drugs by the time you've gotten out.
"My worst day being arrested in the morning, only getting out at 4.30pm in the afternoon, getting soaking wet out on the street, not getting enough cash for my fix and then finding that someone had stolen my blanket and duvet back where I was sleeping rough in Saxton Gardens. I spent the night freezing cold with no duvet, I was soaking wet and my body was screaming out for drugs."
Paul said one of the most important things for homeless people was finding a safe place to bed down for the night, away from where they could be arrested in the city centre under the Vagrancy Act and away from where they could be attacked or mugged.
He said that at the peak of his drug habit he could spend at least £30 a day on cocaine. He added that beggars could make £80, but that went up at Christmas time, and that he once made £380 on Christmas Eve.
Paul added:
"Simon On The Streets changed me. Without them I wouldn't be here now. I'm now back with my family and I am happy."
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