Telford homeless scheme helps record number of people
A Shropshire project that helps find accommodation for homeless men and women said it helped a record number of vulnerable people this winter.
Telford's Bleak Midwinter project is run by community enterprise Maninplace, in conjunction with the borough council and a number of other partners.
It said it helped 131 men this winter compared with 43 last year. The number of women also went up to 30 from four.
Organisers hope to be able to fund the project all year round in the future.
Alan Olver, of Maninplace, said the organisation was looking to secure the additional funding by the end of March.
Mr Olver said: "This is the seventh year of the Bleak Midwinter project and each year we've seen the numbers progressively increasing.
"At the heart of it is the break up of relationships, people not being able to afford accommodation.
"One of the problems for us in Telford and Wrekin is that rough sleeping isn't a visual thing, people just disappear into the boundaries of the borough.
"The work we do with the Salvation Army Kip Project reveals they are there.
"Last night we accommodated 70 people and we've still got four left from the Bleak Midwinter project that we're still trying to find accommodation for."