A CHARITY for homeless people is hoping to expand a project that provided shelter for people sleeping rough during the winter months.

Volunteers kept First Stop Darlington, in Tubwell Row, open overnight when temperatures dropped below freezing between December and February.

The Below Zero initiative gave people sleeping rough a change of clothes, hot meals, a shower and a laundry service and shelter from the cold.

Doors were open from 8pm until 7.30am for 21 nights and the service was used by 38 people aged between 17 and 57.

Marks and Spencer provided First Stop with food each night and staff at Orange donated toiletries and raised £400.

The project was such a success that the charity now wants to provide shelter on nights when temperatures come close to, but do not fall below, zero.

Chief officer Karen Grundy said: "When you are sleeping on the streets a few degrees does not make a difference, it still feels like it is freezing.

"Below Zero was able to offer shelter from the cold to those who otherwise would have been sleeping on the streets. Although First Stop Darlington does not have any sleeping accommodation, clients were given sleeping bags and slept on the floor."

Ms Grundy said the initiative was a success but was not a long-term solution to homelessness.

She said that about six to eight people sleep rough on the streets of Darlington on any one night.

Many more live in temporary accommodation, in hostels, bed and breakfasts, squats or on the floors of family and friends.

"These people are in a vulnerable position," she said.