A North East homelessness charity has slammed the lack of temporary accommodation in the town as London councils move their vulnerable families into private homes.

LillyAnne’s Wellbeing café, Hartlepool, which has been helping people since 2017, has been forced to hand out tents to give homeless people in the town some form of shelter after a worrying lack of temporary accommodation.

In what the town’s MP has labelled a ‘crisis’, the charity explained that struggling people were also facing abuse including being urinated on and having their tents set on fire.

Now there is anger in the town at London councils moving their vulnerable families into private housing in the North East while locals suffer on the streets in the cold.

(Image: Stuart Boulton)

A spokesperson for Hartlepool Council stated that homelessness is a priority for the council and that, along with Hartlepool's MP Jonathan Brash, they have raised the issue of councils in the south of the country placing people in the town.

Angela Arnold, co-creator of LilyAnne's Wellbeing charity, said: "We started to notice a massive increase in homelessness last Christmas and that's when we started doing more ground work, going out and speaking to people.

"Now, we're roughly seeming 10 people a week coming into the café. 

"Temperatures are dropping at the moment and people need extra shelter, if we can give them a tent it gives them something to keep off the wind and rain.

"Local hotels won't house them because of issues in the past which damaged that relationship.

"We've known people recently who are working a full-time job and become homeless. They get told by the council that there are no spaces and then they have nowhere to turn.

"We've had college students kicked out of their homes because of their sexuality. It took three weeks to get them accommodation.

"We've had people sleeping outside of the police station so at least they are safe."

(Image: Stuart Boulton) The staff explained how awful life was for people on the streets, receiving abuse from locals including being urinated on and having their tents set on fire.

Trevor Sherwood, fellow co-creator of LilyAnne's Wellbeing, described how last Christmas they were warned they would be given a fine for handing out tents.

He said: "We have found that in Hartlepool there is not a lot of temporary accommodation available but we have also found that there are people coming up from London.

"They're getting housed by London councils and people in the area are blaming our local council.

"If people do not have priority needs like a disability, drug or alcohol addiction they will struggle.

"We were warned that we might be fined last Christmas for helping homeless people as they worried that we were 'encouraging' it by offering support.

"Homeless people are being targeted by being urinated on, or their tents are set on fire.

"Everything they have is stolen. We try and find safe places for them to stay."

(Image: Stuart Boulton)A spokesperson for Hartlepool Borough Council said: "Homelessness is a priority for the Council and homeless applications are assessed in line with the Government’s homelessness legislation. Anyone contacting the Council to be assessed as homeless does receive an initial response the same day from our designated duty officer. We would ask LilyAnne’s to please support and encourage their clients to make a homeless application to us.

"We commission Cornerstone, the homeless charity, to go out into the community during the day and at night several times a week looking for rough sleepers to offer them advice and help and to refer them to us for assessment for temporary accommodation.

"We also hold a regular multi-agency rough sleeper action group – to which a wide range of agencies are invited, including Cornerstone and other local charities, housing providers, NHS mental health services and the drug and alcohol support service START – to discuss how we are helping current rough sleepers and to find positive solutions to the issue.

"We have also been working with Jonathan Brash MP to raise the Government’s awareness of the severe pressures placed on accommodation in Hartlepool by some councils in the south of the country placing people with some private landlords in the town and we have been instrumental in arranging cross-regional talks through the Local Government Association to further raise awareness of this issue at central Government level." 

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Mr Brash said: "Homelessness is a scandal and in Hartlepool we are at crisis levels.

"It’s completely wrong for affluent southern councils to move people into Hartlepool, when local people are struggling.

"I’ve written to ministers to demand action on this issue.

"Hartlepool is blessed to have local community groups working every day to tackle this problem and they will always have my backing. It’s time to end homelessness once and for all."

You can help Hartlepool's homeless people by donating to LilyAnne's Wellbeing fundraiser here to get them tents.