East Midlands homeless charities under pressure as temperatures drop
They are working to get rough sleepers indoors
A homeless charity in Nottingham has told us they're under pressure to get rough sleepers indoors as temperatures drop across the East Midlands.
'Framework' are an outreach project in Nottingham who support the homeless.
What is SWEP?
When temperatures get low, local Council's initiate their SWEP procedure. That stands for: Severe Weather Emergency Protocol.
Temporary accommodation opens so that the homeless have somewhere to sleep.
With temperatures dropping below freezing again today (10th Jan) and a yellow weather alert for ice in place until midday, homeless charities are responding to the SWEP procedure.
'Really dangerous'
Jack Dowell, from Framework, told us what his concerns are: "It is really dangerous sleeping in sub-zero conditions.
"These people have been rough sleeping for a long time too, so they have various different health concerns which can be exasperated by sleeping in the cold.
"We have outreach workers that go out every morning that do welfare checks on people rough sleeping and connect them with health services they might need," he said.
Under pressure...
Jack said they are under pressure to get the homeless indoors, receiving extra calls from those struggling to keep warm:
"That averages about 10 extra referrals and then we have 20 people who we regularly do welfare checks with.
"That means we're squeezing visits with 30 people in the space of our 3 hour outreach time," he said.