'A lifestyle choice?' Homeless in Bradford say tents on streets are crucial to survival

This is the first time Nicky Hudson has lived on the streets, and she is not doing well. She has been sleeping for the past couple of weeks in a tent underneath railway arches at Forster Square in Bradford.

- Robyn Vinter

The arches are home to about a dozen people sleeping in tents, mostly in camps of two or three across five arches. It is the most sheltered place in the city center for rough sleepers, but even so it is damp in the November weather and the nights are bitter.

Is she coping? Her face screws up and tears flood out. “Not at all,” she says.

The other rough sleepers call Hudson “Stuart Little” because of the rustling noises she makes while tidying her tent, though it might equally fit her slight stature.

The 47-year-old is vulnerable. The previous day a mugger took all her money and on this day she is unable to find her phone, fearing someone has stolen it. And without the tent, she “ wouldn’t have survived ”, she says.

Most people here agree. There is a great deal of concern over plans by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, to curb the use of tents by homeless people in urban areas – a controversial measure the prime minister does not back and which Braverman failed to get included in the king’s speech.