North East homelessness charity raise concerns about rough sleepers during cold snap
They are urging people to help support in anyway they can, by giving a smile or providing a hot drink.
A North East homelessness charity tells us they are concerned about people sleeping rough during the cold snap.
They are urging people to use the street link app to report people sleeping rough to local services.
Kirstie Wilkinson, Changing Lives area manager for the North East, said: "If you see somebody that you are concerned about, you would log onto the streetlink app and just report it. Those referrals get sent to the appropriate local authority. They then pass that on to their outreach teams, or it might be to the local police, or to anybody that's responsible for looking and then we would go out and have a look for that person.
"There's a massive increase in people who have chest infections. There's a risk of hypothermia if people aren't keeping warm enough. Mental health - there are less people out there, less people will talk to them and say hello.
"If you feel comfortable, make eye contact and say hello. You don't have to donate anything, just acknowledge that the person is there. I think when a lot of people walk past somebody and don't look at them or acknowledge them, it can make that person's mental health even worse. It's not very nice. We wouldn't want to be ignored.
"People who are experiencing rough sleeping, that's just a huge challenge all by itself, and especially in this weather it's a lot harder. I think another impact is they're not always visible to services. So, when the weather's nicer, people tend to maybe sleep in a shop doorway or they'll sleep in quite an exposed area because it's warmer."