Sean Proudman is staying at a Britannia hotel in Manchester, but after that he doesn't know where he will go.
The 51-year-old is homeless, and has spent the last seven years moving between the streets and temporary accommodation.
He describes himself as being trapped in a 'cycle' of moving from place to place.
In recent weeks he has lived at hostels, hotels and addresses in Cheetham Hill, Sale and Ardwick.
He was recently given a room at a Britannia hotel in Manchester, arranged by Manchester's council. But his stay there won't be long.
One of the few constants in Sean's life is Coffee4Craig, the city centre homeless charity where he can chat to friendly faces, get a hot meal and mental health support. In recent months, they say, they've seen an explosion in demand for their services.
"If it were not for (Coffee4Craig) I would not be here," Sean told the Manchester Evening News, when we met him there last week. "Obviously I have ended up with mental health issues from being on the streets."
Sitting down on a bench outside Coffee4Craig's Great Ducie Street premises, Sean talks about his frustrations with places he's been housed by the council in recent months.
He has no complaints with the Britannia - expressing relief that he's 'got somewhere to live for this week'. But he's worried about where he will go next, saying other places he's been offered have felt dangerous or dirty, with cobwebs on the windows.
One room he was offered he felt he had to turn down, as it was too far away from the mental health support he needs in the city centre. He asked for it to be offered to someone else, but fears it was left empty while others slept on the street.
The properties Sean says he has had bad experiences at in the past are not used by the Greater Manchester Mayor's A Bed Every Night scheme, which targets people like Sean in its mission to get rough sleepers off the streets and into hotels during the pandemic.
Nonetheless, Sean feels anger towards Andy Burnham as he struggles to navigate keeping safe on the streets.
"Some of these accommodations are more like drug dens," he says. "I have been really angry at (Greater Manchester Mayor) Andy Burnham. One of the rooms I stayed in had a blood stain outside it.
"It is a biohazard. They are opening these places up and saying 'we do not have to do anything else'.
"I am not one of those people who will sit by. People should know what their tax is being spent on. It has got to be somewhere you can stay."
The mayor, and his A Bed Every Night organisation, remain at forefront of the minds of many in Manchester in the battle to bring down the level of homelessness.
There has been some success, says Mr Burnham, with a 60 per cent drop in the number of people 'living outdoors' over four years, and the A Bed Every Night helping more than 600 people a night with emergency accommodation.
Sean describes how many of the people on the streets of Manchester are 'the same people who have been out there for years', as well as people who have 'come from different areas like Glasgow and Edinburgh'.
The Mayor says that he hopes other cities will adopt a model like A Bed Every Night, telling the M.E.N: "A Bed Every Night has dignity and respect at its core, including high standards of accommodation and hygiene – it is a model we feel other towns and cities should seek to emulate.
"We know that historically the standard of some emergency accommodation has not been good enough. We are working hard to boost accommodation standards across the city-region, especially bed and breakfasts.
"Greater Manchester’s new Homelessness Prevention Strategy commits to work to radically improve temporary accommodation standards, with a focus on improved experiences for homeless families.
"We will also introduce a Good Landlord Scheme and deliver 30,000 zero-carbon homes for social rent.
"In Greater Manchester, we have a long-term vision to reduce the numbers of people finding themselves at risk of homelessness.”
Sean is one of the regulars at Coffee4Craig, but staff and volunteers at Coffee4Craig are seeing more and more new faces.
"I think it is down to government cuts and universal credit changes. Furlough, people going out of business," Coffee4Craig co-founder Risha Lancaster says.
"The catering industry is on its knees. We are getting so many people losing their jobs because of COVID and lockdown.
"There has also been cuts to services and the mental health crisis. It is the same for all the charities. We are all really struggling. It is having a really detrimental effect on us now.
"It is getting to the point where every single night there is someone presenting in crisis. We are sticking a plaster on it.
"A lot of hostels have got a bottleneck. It is just going to get worse and worse. I am not looking forward to the next five years."
Coffee4Craig want to build a larger, catering kitchen so they can help more people.
"All our meals are cooked fresh," Risha says. "We got our building about 18 months ago. We had to do up the whole building, create a kitchen and build the showers.
"It was during lockdown. We did what we could and built a domestic kitchen. We have already gone through four ovens and the actual kitchen has only been open for a year.
"The demands on our services have grown to the point where we need a catering kitchen."
Coffee4Craig has also appointed a full-time chef who has lots of ideas about how they can move things forward.
They are looking at starting schemes to help people with moving on once they have their own place, teaching them to cook and budget so they are able to live independently, for example.
They also want to equip people with skills to try and get work in the catering industry- one of the biggest employers in Manchester - and hope a new catering kitchen will give them space to do this.
Talking to Sean, it seems as if he has more faith in the charities that have helped him - like Coffee4Craig and the Mustard Tree - than he does in officialdom.
He says he has PTSD after a traumatic childhood, and believes 'there would not be as many people out on the street' if there were better mental health services.
"People do not really understand PTSD unless you have suffered it," he says. "I had so many issues going on. I am not the only one out there.
"A lot of people are past caring."
There are few places Sean feels wanted. He says he's 'lost count' of the amount of times he's been attacked on the streets, and that even at hospital 'they make you feel so unwelcome'.
His bag has everything he owns in it, but he feels it marks him out as a homeless person, making him feel judged.
"I have got septic arthritis in my knees from being on the streets and I have to carry my pack with my hernia popping out," he says.
The charity Coffee4Craig also offers medical services, showers and new clothes for people off the streets to people like Sean, and provides an out of hours of scheme to help refer people to accommodation during the winter. As far as Sean's concerned, if more people support charities like this one, then 'there is a way'.
"Anyone can come in who is sleeping on the streets or is in temporary accommodation," Risha says.
"There are quite a lot of people who do not have access to any kind of food or anything like that.
"We do advice and signposting. They can also come in and just relax for a couple of hours and watch telly."
A range of social issues are making homelessness worse, says Manchester City Council, including the end of furlough schemes and changes to Universal Credit.
"From the outset of the pandemic the Council has worked extremely hard to support as many people as possible who have either lost, or are at risk of losing their home," a spokesperson said.
"Many factors have and will play their part in exacerbating homelessness, from the loss of jobs and income, to the end of furlough schemes, changes being made to the Universal Credit £20 uplift, or other changes to a person's personal circumstances.
"Dedicated Covid accommodation has been set up for people who have the virus and are homeless, and some emergency accommodation sites opened at the start of the pandemic have been maintained, providing continued support for people in Manchester.
"Due to the greater demand the Council is seeing, we are continuing to prioritise prevention of homelessness rather than just emergency relief. We fund and work with third party organisations who can provide advice and support across a range of issues including personal finance, mental health support or substance abuse."
Responding to Sean Proudman's complaints, the town hall said it tries to make sure all accommodation is safe, but added that it relies on reports from clients as well.
"We work to ensure that all accommodation is safe and clean for people to live in," added the spokesperson. "We regularly inspect properties but also act on reports from clients who flag up issues with us.
"Beds may not immediately be filled if a person initially declines. We always try to work with someone to ensure their needs are met so that they have a safe roof over their head, and that they can continue to access support services, such as those for mental health. We do not want to be in a situation when a bed is taken away from someone who may really need it."
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, added: “In 2021, no-one should have to spend a night sleeping on the streets.
"In Greater Manchester, we are working hard to end the need for rough sleeping, and prior to the pandemic the numbers of people living outdoors had declined by almost 60 per cent in four years.
"This is as a result of excellent partnership working across the public, private, third and faith sectors, and the hard work of hundreds of volunteers right across the city-region.
"It’s also a result of the impact of a number of successful schemes including our multimillion-pound Housing First pilot and our unique A Bed Every Night programme, which assists more than 600 people a night with emergency accommodation."
You can donate to Coffee4Craig's catering kitchen appeal here and find out more about Coffee4Craig and how to volunteer or donate here.
Coffee4Craig is always looking for volunteers and is currently seeking donations of food and clothing.
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