Teesside charity believes homeless people 'deserve shelter' this winter
LilyAnne's Wellbeing is handing out tents but say it's not an ideal solution
We are hearing how a Teesside charity is aiming to help homeless people this winter by handing out tents.
LilyAnne's Wellbeing, which is based in Hartlepool, say they believe everyone deserves shelter from the snow, rain and wind during these colder months.
They also say they know tents are not an ideal solution and their main aim is get homeless people into properties.
Angela Arnold, co-creator of the charity, said: "The first case we supported before we started doing the homeless support, we had to send them back out with nothing and it was snowing. We had a sleepless night, we went home that night and we came back and thought 'right, how do we changethis? Because this isn't right. This isn't OK.
"I think one of the important things is that homelessness isn't a choice. People don't choose that. A lot of people seem to think they've done that themselves or they've created it but most people that we've supported, yes there's a lot of addictions at play, but that's because they haven't had the mental health support that they needed that stems from childhood truma."
Trevor Sherwood, co-creator of the charity, said: "If someone comes in who's newly homeless, who hasn't got the support in place, we're able to keep them warm for the night and it's not about giving them a tent and keeping them in a tent, what we would do is they get a lot of advocacy support from myself and Angela and we'll work relentlessly to get them in a house with community partners.
"We don't want to give out tents. We want to start being able to put people into properties because giving someone a tent is completely heartbreaking. It's all we can do somedays. We know a tent isn't the ideal solution and it's not the thing we should be giving out, but when people have got nothing, it's that one thing that's going to protect them from the wind, snow and rain this winter."
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