HOMELESS people are still sleeping rough despite freezing temperatures.

Maggs Day Centre, in Deansway, Worcester, has ran out of room for rough sleepers on three nights between Thursday, February 22, and Friday, March 2.

Paul Damari, founder of Angel Wings, a Worcester-based group which helps the homeless, said: “If you go out there you always find people who are under the radar.

“They are in sleeping bags in the cold and the snow. Hypothermia could set in. It could be fatal.

“We have been seeing at least several people especially around the Foregate area, Fort Royal Hill and down in the city centre. They feel absolutely alone.

“We think things are getting worse. I’ve been out over the past couple of nights. We take flasks around and offer them a sandwich.”

Kishor Rao, aged 56, who lives at St Paul’s Hostel, in Tallow Hill, Worcester, still remembers his experience of sleeping rough.

In the summer of 2010 the father-of-four was evicted from his home in Malvern and had to sleep in the hills near Castlemorton.

He said: “I was in rent arrears. I couldn’t afford to pay the bills.

“On the first night, I stayed on the hills. I had a fire. Rough sleeping is very hard and difficult.

“I tried to find big cardboard boxes which I had to carry with me or find a dry sheltered place.

“I had to go around begging for food. It was different [to current conditions] as I didn’t have snow. But there was terrible rain which meant I got wet clothes. Drying them was very hard.”

Mr Rao hiked to Worcester and received support from Maggs Day Centre, before moving into a bed and breakfast and finally the hostel.

The welder fabricator said he is now desperately trying to find a place of his own.

Mark Dean, aged 55, another resident at St Paul’s Hostel, said he became homeless after he broke up with his partner.

The couple lived together and Mr Dean started to drink heavily after the relationship fell apart.

He ended up in hospital and his sister arranged for him to enter the hostel when he was discharged in 2016.

Mr Dean said: “I feel lucky that I avoided sleeping on the streets, it was only for the support of my sister coming over and getting me admitted here.”

Ross Webber, project manager for Caring for Communities and People (CCP), which runs the night shelter at Maggs Day Centre, said: “It’s our first time ever over capacity…the first time in the two years we have been running SWEP [Severe Weather Emergency Protocol].”

Ginette Sadler, who ran the night shelter from 2012 to 2016, said it never reached maximum capacity during her tenure.

She also thinks half the number of homeless people used the accommodation in 2016.

Mr Webber said 86 individuals have used the shelter, which can accommodate 18 people, since Sunday, October 1.

The most challenging night was on Tuesday, February 6, when 25 homeless people turned up at the centre seeking a place to sleep.

Mr Webber said: “It’s not a good thing if the provision gets full. I don’t want there to be people sleeping on the streets.”

He added that his team is handling the extra demand but requires a bigger site for next year.

The shelter at Maggs Day Centre received 21 people on Friday, February 23, 20 people on Tuesday, February 27, and 19 people on Wednesday, February 28.

Rough sleepers that could not be accepted were sent to the city’s YMCA.

The YMCA provides floor space, sleeping bags and roll mats to the homeless as part of the No Second Night Out programme.

The night shelter at Maggs Day Centre opens when temperatures drop below zero degrees.

It is usually the only walk-in emergency accommodation in Worcestershire, although CCP set up a night shelter in the Ecumenical Centre, in Evesham Walk, Redditch, on Tuesday.

It opened after a number of rough sleepers declined to be travel to Worcester for shelter.

Jonathan Sutton, chief executive of St Paul’s Hostel, in Tallow Hill, said his hostel has experienced the worst winter in his memory.

He added: “It’s cold and we have got a full hostel. This is an event that we don’t want to happen but when it happens we deal with it.

“The only way we will solve the crisis that comes from increased numbers of homeless in Worcester is for the city council and charity sector to work together to solve this problem.”

The hostel, which has 46 beds, has been full - apart from on three days - since the end of October.

CCP runs the night shelter at Maggs Day Centre as part of a Homelessness Prevention Engagement Scheme contract with Worcester City Council.

If you see a rough sleeper who needs help you can report them through www.streetlink.org.uk/