Homeless out in the cold with nowhere to turn

ROUGH SLEEPERS DESCRIBE DIFFICULTIES FINDING BEDS AS TEMPERATURES PLUMMET

- THOMAS GEORGE

IT was a blisteringly cold night, with temperatures as low as -8.

Yet, in 21st Century Greater Manchester, people were sleeping outside.

At least 10 rough sleepers woke up on the city centre streets yesterday morning.

Outside a Greggs on Market Street, a man in thin gloves and a sleeping bag tells the Manchester Evening News he only received an offer of accommodation after the sun came up. The man, who asks not to be named, says he managed just three hours of sleep.

"Why can't they sort it?," he asks.

"The first I heard from them is after I'm already frozen. They must have places.

I've seen them do it, but they come at difficult times, like when we're asleep... or not at all." The man spent the night outside the Uniqlo store, with only a sleeping bag and scraps of cardboard keeping him off the painfully cold concrete.

He's slowly rationed a single cigarette since waking up - his only small bit of comfort. People passing on their way to work have offered him hot drinks.

Nothing warms him.