AS summer approaches, and the days and nights are getting warmer, night shelters across south Essex who help rough sleepers in winter are closing their doors.

But one community group is making headway in setting up a place of refuge in Southend for those people without a place to stay at night.

Off The Streets is currently in the process of agreeing renting a property in the town.

Del Thomas, 36, from Southend is chairman of the group and told the Echo that homelessness is a major problem in Southend.

He said that the issue of rough sleeping in the borough is continuing to grow - with 72 rough sleepers recorded in Southend in November.

Off The Streets was set up after the Church Winter Night Shelters finished in order to ensure that rough sleepers will have a stepping stone on their journey to be housed. The idea is to set up a permanent shelter seven days a week, 365 days a year to help with the growing homeless problem here in Southend.

Del said: “Off the Streets was set up by Kirsty Louise, her mum Karen Fields and myself.

“We did operate a night shelter from Southchurch Park United Reformed Church but we had to shut the shelter as sadly the hirers of the venue were unhappy and so we have been looking for a suitable venue since.

“We need to raise about £2,700 which will cover insurance, deposit, and other things that we need to satisfy such as the Housing Justice kitemark, which shows that we are a real night shelter service.

“We have come up against the issue of people not wanting a night shelter where they live and I think it’s down to misconceptions of what rough sleepers are.

“People often think rough sleepers are drunk but we will not be taking in drunk people to any night shelter that we open.

“It’s really important that we have services like night shelters as these people are in desperate need of help in the community.

“I think that anyone is just two pay checks away from becoming homeless, it could happen to anyone.”

The Government’s Rough Sleeping Statistics for Autumn 2017, showed the town is the ninth most affected area in the UK.

The statistics, based on an annual “single night snapshot of rough sleeping” revealed there was a 28-person increase on rough sleepers from 2016.

In 2010, when figures were first recorded, there were only eight rough sleepers counted in the town.

Of the 72 people counted, 12 of them were female and 60 male.

A total of 64 rough sleepers in Southend were from the UK, with five from the EU and three from outside Europe.

Nine of Southend’s rough sleepers in last year’s count were aged between 18 and 25.

Mr Thomas added that the plans for the group’s night shelter including offering meals to rough sleepers

He said: “We would need to do a lot fundraising to get the money to run the shelter. We see ourselves as a long term project working in partnership with other agencies in town to get people off the streets and into housing and then support them to stay there.

Visit www.gofundme.com/off-the-streets-permanent-shelter