Appeal for aid in homeless crisis

Corner House Youth Project staff are asking people for help in feeding and clothing homeless people after funding dried up.

Volunteers at the Stockton organisation say the young adults and teenagers are in danger of serious health problems from under nourishment and lack of food.

The centre feeds and clothes people who turn up at the Dovecot Street premises, but cannot meet the high demand from more than 100 visits a week.

Staff work with church groups to provide free Sunday lunches, for which customers queue, an outreach soup kitchens and a mobile soup bus.

The most desperate cases sleep under the Victoria Bridge, or in skips, and are known as skip rats.

Two homeless young men are also sleeping in a tent on an industrial estate. They were driven out of a hostel for the homeless because of drug problems and their home is now a two-man hiking tent on a disused vacated factory site south of the town.

One of the tent-dwellers said: "It's miserable and hopeless being homeless. I was forced out of the hostel.

"But the Corner House is a lifeline. They're helping me apply for a home and for a job.''

Project organiser Margaret Agar said: "We see the most desperate youngsters. They are vulnerable because of the problems which made them homeless and they get into fights.

"They then get into a cycle of despair and isolation through having no home and no address, which they need to get a job or benefits.

"Because they are young men, they are on the lowest priority when it comes to the queue for council houses. They try the hostels, but they can be hostile, frightening places, especially when drug-taking and dealing happens.

"We're their last hope and give them donated food and second- hand clothes. We try our best not to make them dependent on us. We help them help themselves and to prepare housing, benefit and job applications.''

Wearable clean clothes and non-perishable food can be donated by contacting Lesley Makin or Margaret Agar (01642) 605838.