They really need help, they want to get jobs, they've not come here just to chill

Woman who makes food for people living in row of tents outside town hall says the council must provide them with homes

- DECLAN CAREY

A YOUNG man walks back to his tent through the busy throng of Christmas shoppers on St Peter's Square.

He zips his coat right up to the top as the cool December air bites.

Then, as he pauses by a giant figure of Father Christmas, he sighs.

Another night on the street looms.

The man, Abdullah Hassan, spent the morning visiting charities in the city centre looking for help to get a house. No luck today.

Abdullah is one of a number of people currently sleeping rough in a row of tents outside Manchester town hall.

The makeshift town, built in front of one of Manchester's grandest buildings and surrounded by expensive festive displays, is an alarming sight.

Here the wealth of the city contrasted with the poverty of many of its inhabitants is laid bare.

The row of tents first appeared in spring under the arches of the town hall extension building - which has since been fenced off.

Further along a tent door is open, and a pair of feet stick out. A freezing cold wind pulls them back inside, and every now and then a shopper walking past stops to take a picture.

Abdullah said he has been sleeping rough for two months and says nights are the worst. Heavy Manchester rain last week left him shivering inside a sleeping bag one evening, when water leaked inside his tent. Everything was ruined.

"It's just horrible," he says.

Red tents on St Peter's Square first started popping up in spring, which organiser Emma Leyla Mohareb said was initially set up as a protest.

Calls were made to use council buildings as temporary shelter, but when growing numbers of people flocked to the area it turned into a community under the arches.

Numbers were even higher than now to begin with, but many people left as accommodation offers rolled in.