The number of people regularly sleeping rough in Lincoln is at its highest for almost a decade, government figures show.
An estimated 20 people in the city had to bed down on the street on any given night last autumn according to recent figures.
The number is the highest since 2017 when the same figure stood at 28.
The data comes from the government’s annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot In England survey which also found that, around the country, some 4,667 people were sleeping rough each night.
The increase in Lincoln has been caused by a number of factors experts suggest including the growing lack of affordable housing and the on-going cost-of-living crisis.
Megan Panther, communications co-ordinator at the Nomad Centre – an emergency accomodation provider in Lincoln – said: “The freezing of the house benefit has obviously contributed towards the increasing number.”
The Nomad Centre is a service run by the YMCA charity and provides short- and long-term accommodation for those who are homeless in Lincoln. It supports between 300 to 400 people each year with 170 accommodations slots.
Ms Panther said: “You can see how grateful people are to be able to have the support around them and the roof over their head.”
Becky Frost, project manager at Project Compass – a charity which provides support to those experiencing homelessness – added that the number of rough sleepers in Lincoln had fluctuated in the seven years since the charity was set up in 2019.
She said: “You never know who’s going to come through the door and you never know each day what kind of things you’re going to be faced with.”
The government says it is currently investing £1 billion into services supporting homelessness and rough sleeping.
