Homelessness in West Norfolk: King’s Lynn Night Shelter and Purfleet Trust among the charities leading the charge

Reporter Molly Nicholas speaks to officials from King's Lynn Night Shelter and the Purfleet Trust about homelessness in West Norfolk

Transcript

00:00This is Kingston Night Shelter and we provide emergency accommodation in single rooms 24-7

00:06for people who've got nowhere else safe to stay. Our guests tell us that when they sleep rough

00:11they are sometimes urinated on all their sleeping bags and their tents are.

00:15I've had people telling us their tents have been set on fire. Night Shelter exists particularly

00:20to help people who really don't have other options and are struggling to engage with

00:24other agencies. We see people coming here who might have been in quite a lot of chaos for some time

00:30or might have lost previous accommodation. We are their only option for a safe place to stay.

00:35The Night Shelter has a very small budget for food through the year. We use it mainly

00:39for buying fresh meat and we rely very much on the community to help us with food donations.

00:45We put a list on the website of all the different things we can accept

00:48and we've been amazed and humbled by people's generosity over the last few years.

00:54And I think for our guests, knowing that they have so many people who care about them

00:58and want to help and want to make sure that they're fed properly,

01:01that makes a difference to them and their sense of being a person and their well-being.

01:11Here at Perth Leap Pathways we put together house-to-home packages which consist of like

01:15four plates, bowls, cutlery and towels, bedding, they get a brand new bed. So any donations come

01:22to here first, we sort them all out, they go to the shop to be sold or either we keep them here

01:25for house-to-home packages. I was homeless myself, this is why I'm doing this and it gives you feel

01:31good satisfaction.