On a cold and crisp afternoon in Liverpool city centre, shoppers are streaming into the increasingly busy streets.
The city's main shopping district is adorned with sparkling lights and decorations. Shop windows are glowing with warm and cosy displays as people rush by.
If you scan around the city centre you will see plenty of symbols of festive frivolity right now, but you will also see something else. Something much more difficult to absorb.
The visual symbols of Liverpool's soaring homelessness crisis are impossible to miss. On every street corner there is a person sitting, wrapped in blankets or sodden sleeping bags. Tents have sprung up right across the city centre as more and more people with nowhere to turn bed down for the freezing winter nights.
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Outside Primark there is a stark scene of contrast. Directly in front of a well-lit window highlighting one of the shop's comfy bed products lies two tents, surrounded by smashed glass and detritus. The juxtaposition tells its own difficult story of where this city finds itself right now.
Craig is sat outside the H&M store in Lord Street, wrapped in a thick green coat, a black bobble hat covering the top of his ashen face. His only company comes in the form of his beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, Mia.
The 39-year-old has been homeless for around three years now, he has been sleeping rough on the city's streets for the past eight weeks. He says that since the city council closed its Labre House shelter during the pandemic, he has struggled to find shelter.
"There's nothing for us now, nowhere to go," he explains, patting Mia gently. She has been with him since he was a child. "I wouldn't be able to go on without my dog," he adds.
No one is more aware of the recent drop in temperatures in the city than someone who is sleeping on the streets. This weekend Liverpool Council activated its Severe Weather Emergency Protocol for the first times of the year as the first signs of the winter cold snap set in.
"It's getting a lot colder very quickly now, especially at night," says Craig. "You have to try and get out of the cold and the rain at night. It is just about getting by day to day now, you can't look too far ahead."
Like many of those on the streets, Craig's life fell apart through a family breakdown and like many he struggles with addiction issues. He says he doesn't feel like anyone is helping him right now.
"The government is doing nothing about this," he says, gesturing at two tents across the way. "I want to get back on my feet but it is all just b******t. I won't go in the hostels, its not a good atmosphere for me."
Craig says he has been attacked five times while sleeping rough and worries what each new day will bring – or if it will come at all.
"My plan? My plan is just getting through each day," he adds, "I've got to take each day as it comes now, I don't know if I am going to wake up the next day."
At the corner of the bustling Church Street, close to Liverpool Central Station, Danny Doyle is sat against the wall of the Lloyds bank building. Aside from the clothes he is wearing, he has only a thin sheet to protect him from the cold ground he is sitting on.
Danny's story is not too different to Craig's. "I had a bad family situation," he explains. "I lost my business and I fell out with my mum." He's spent three years on the streets now and he desperately wants a home.
"I have tried the housing loads of times, you just don't hear back. You do lose hope that you will ever get somewhere."
He feels the same way about the hostels as many of the others who are sleeping rough. "I won't go there," he adds.
For 33-year-old Danny, originally from Fazakerley, as the evening starts to draw in, his focus turns to where will be the safest place to bed down. "It's getting cold now," he says, rubbing his gloved hands together. "I've got a few spots I tend to head to, they are just outside the city centre. You want to get out of the city at night, it's not nice. I've been p***** on before."
Liverpool is in the grip of a multi-layered and complex homelessness crisis and things are getting worse by the day. Some of that crisis is very visible, like the tents popping up on the streets or the people – like Craig and Danny – who feel they have nowhere to go.
But just as alarming as the numbers that can be seen on the streets of the city right now, are the number who are on the brink of heading the same way.
Liverpool currently has 572 people in emergency bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation, with 407 of those people having already exceeded the six weeks statutory limit for people in such temporary accommodation. The cash-strapped council's spending on temporary accommodation has rocketed from £250,000 to an an anticipated £19m at the end of this financial year.
The crisis is being made even more grave as hundreds of newly registered refugees find themselves homeless and sleeping rough after their fast-tracked Home Office claims have left them with nowhere to go.
The situation has been described as an emergency by council leader Liam Robinson, who has twice written to government to ask for emergency intervention to stop more people ending up on the city's streets. At the time of writing he had not heard back.
If Cllr Robinson has been left unimpressed by the Conservatives' approach to homelessness then he is joined by rough sleeper Steve. He is sat outside the Tesco Superstore in Hanover street, putting pen to cardboard to create the latest in a series of signs that he displays to passers by.
The latest effort reads: "Why is their still homelessness in the 5th richest country? Because the Tories are useless liars."
"It's disgraceful, I have been homeless on and off for three years now and this is the worst I have ever seen it," he says, gesturing at tents further down the street. "The Tory government are doing nothing about it."
On the subject of Conservatives, Steve has some withering words for the recently departed Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who suggested living in a tent on the street was a 'lifestyle choice.'
"Don't get me started on that woman, she is a disgrace," he adds. "Come to reality, sit on these streets and tell me it is a lifestyle choice."
Steve's problems started when he lost his wife died, he developed serious mental health issues including PTSD. He has used drugs before but has been clean for a while now.
"When I lost my wife I lost everything. I couldn't pay bills and things just spiralled out of control," he explains. "I have serious mental health issues and when I go into these hostels, they have no way of dealing with people with my mental health issues, I feel unsafe."
"Why aren't I in a property? Why is there still homelessness in this country?" I don't have any faith that the government will do anything about homelessness.
Steve points out that when Covid-19 struck, he and most other rough sleepers were given accommodation rapidly as part of government efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
"In 48 hours there was not one homeless person on the streets. They got everyone inside, they showed they can do it, but why can't they do it now?"
Like many of those we spoke to, Steve believes a place to live is the only way to rebuild his life, but it feels very far away right now. He said: "Just give me somewhere to live. I just need a key to a door. I can build my life from there."
Someone else in desperate need of a safe and warm place to live is 57-year-old Bobby, who has pitched up a tent outside the Home Bargains, a few hundred yards along from where Steve is sat.
The health implications of sleeping rough are severe and Bobby is already in trouble, suffering with cancer and emphysema. He is doing his best to keep warm, filling out his red tent with blankets and cardboard.
"I left Liverpool ten years ago," he says. "Since I came back, because I have got no ties in the community, it feels like they don't have to bother with me. I am born and bred here but they don't want to house me.
"I've been here in this tent for the past three weeks. I've had to go to hospital four or five times because I'm not well. I need a house, if you get a house you can build your life back up."
Gesturing inside his tent, he adds: "I've got thick polystyrene in there, I've got three sleeping bags, but it still gets cold. I have to sleep in everything I am wearing."
This is a national crisis playing out at a local level. A catastrophe fuelled by a cost of living crisis that is seeing more and more people evicted, struggling to pay rent and bills as cash-strapped councils, battered by 13 years of cuts, struggling to pick up the pieces. In Liverpool the rough sleeper numbers have shot up by a terrifying 50% in 12 months.
While a property is the key for many of those currently sleeping rough, it is not always a panacea, particularly during a cost of living crisis.
Krzysztof, who is sat propped against the city's now closed Epstein Theatre, actually has a flat currently, but he can't afford to keep up with his bills, so takes to the city's streets in the hope of a little extra help.
An alcoholic, the Polish national says he feels "shame" for his addiction and needs help. He doesn't specifically ask for money from passers by but is grateful when people stop to give him change.
"I have to beg, I can't afford to live. Food is going up, energy bills are going up, everything is up. It is not just Liverpool, this is happening everywhere.
"There are tents everywhere. When it was the pandemic, they put everyone inside, but now they are back out on the streets again. We have a real crisis. I think next year will be even worse, many people will lose their homes."
Against this backdrop of darkness and desperation, there are plenty of people and organisations that are doing their best to help.
Ellie McNeill is the chief executive of the YMCA Together organisation that provides accommodation in Liverpool and the surrounding areas for those experiencing homelessness.
The organisation's largest facility, a 70-bed Leeds Street block, is currently full. Ellie is unequivocal about how bad things are right now.
"This is the worst winter I have ever experienced in working in these types of services for 20 years," she says.
The charity provides what is known as step one accommodation to get people off the streets and then try to move them into suitable housing. But that has become harder and harder as the reality of the housing crisis bites.
She adds: "I've been in the city for nine years, it has become increasingly difficult in that time to find move on options for people and I think that is absolutely a national crisis and a policy choice as well. The investment that used to come through to support the building of houses is not there so fewer houses are being built."
"When we see things like the pandemic and the cost of living, more evictions, all these things are causing more homelessness but there are less and less options for people."
While the current homelessness crisis in the city can feel desperate and hopeless, there are the occasional small moments of hope and one of those arrived after our chat with Ellie at the YMCA centre.
We were introduced to Tracy, one of the charity's current residents, who is starting to build her life back after years of pain. Having been evicted from her home by a private landlord, Tracy was separated from her family and ended up in hostels and on the streets. She also suffered the tragic loss of her son last year.
But with the help of the YMCA staff, she is starting to deal with her trauma, a process that she hopes will lead her towards rebuilding her life.
"I was on the streets before I came here," she explains. "At first I wasn't sure, but I have had lots of help and support here. I'm doing bereavement counselling because my son took his own life. It's been great for me. I was always hesitant but I'm progressing now. I'm getting better."
Asked where she would like to see herself in a few years' time, she answers: "Still alive I hope, I want to be in my own home with my children back with me. I'm making progress, I'm getting there."
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