HOMELESS people are pitching tents in green spaces all over Swindon in a desperate bid to shield themselves from winter storms and freezing conditions.

Tents have appeared in the Wyvern Theatre car park, Lawn Woods, at Mannington Roundabout and the GWR park as well as Spring Gardens in the town centre and other locations in the north of the town.

Local support group Homeless Helping Hands says there are at least 20 vulnerable people living under canvas.

Gemma George from the organisation said: “This is an ongoing problem and it has left them trying to do whatever they can to survive.

“It’s always at this time of the year that this becomes noticeable. Humanity should be taken care of no matter what.”

The support group also believes the actual number of people without a home is somewhere between 68 and 75, including sofa surfers who move between family and friends’ homes to keep a roof over their heads.

According to Gemma, one of the biggest issues they face is a lack of mental health support.

She explained a lot of the people who are on the streets suffer with mental health illnesses including schizophrenia and ADHD.

“There is nowhere for these people to go, no shelter, no refuge and the reason for their drug and alcohol abuse is because this is their way of self-medicating to try and cope,” she said.

Early in the year, during extremely cold weather cafe owner, Louise Fields, helped the homeless by giving them hot drinks, food and a place to stay. She said she will offer this service again to help those who need it most.

“It is getting worse, a lot more people are ending up on the street and it breaks my heart. I wish I could do more,” she said. “Everyone needs to come together to help as a community and not judge why they are in the position that they are. We will always have our doors open to the homeless.”

Louise added: “No one should be on the streets regardless of how they ended up there and there needs to be something done in the system to stop this.”

She has started a shoebox collection to provide rough sleepers with useful items like gloves, underwear and thermals to help them stay warm. They will be given to charities to distribute.

Swindon Borough Council told the Advertiser it worked very hard to make sure professional help was available for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless – spending around £1.4m on providing a range of different types of support.

Cabinet member for housing and public safety Coun Cathy Martyn said: “We offer extensive support to every single rough sleeper in Swindon, though, regrettably, not everyone finds it easy to engage with us.

“Our housing officers are aware of a small number of tents that appear from time to time, but we always engage with the occupants and in recent weeks we have seen a big decrease in the number.”

The council has also opened its temporary winter shelter at the former Riverside School to 12 rough sleepers who will be helped to find permanent accommodation.

A day centre will also open to offer rough sleepers access to mental health services and help for drug and alcohol addiction.