Homeless charity appeals for sleeping bag help

A charity which helps homeless people and rough sleepers across East Yorkshire has appealed for help after it ran out of sleeping bags.

Help the Homelezz, which is based in Goole, said it helped between 50 and 70 individuals on an average night and handed out up to 15 bags a day.

The charity said demand for its services had doubled since it was set up four years ago.

Founder Mark Penn said: “These bags are vital. During the day an individual can use them to sit somewhere comfortable and then it doubles up as somewhere to sleep at night.”

Mr Penn told the BBC the charity had previously been supported by the salvage team at Leeds Festival and, as a non-funded organisation, it was reliant on donations.

But he added rising costs, inflation and the cost of living crisis had placed added pressure on the charity.

He said: “We used to get donations all the time but, because of the cost of living crisis, the people who used to help us are now asking for help themselves.

“As a charity we’re grateful for any donations. Any sleeping bag at this moment in time will help someone. We’ll even clean and repair them if they need it.”

The former soldier, who was a rough sleeper himself for six months, started the charity after working as a volunteer NHS responder in the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is not easy living on the streets,” he said.

“It’s hard enough in the daytime trying to get a drink or something to eat.

“Week-by-week we have no idea how many people we’ll be working with. It can be really hard and these people are surviving on the streets. It’s 2024 and we shouldn’t be having this.”