A north-east homeless charity chief says he has seen a fourfold increase in the number of people seeking help in the past 18 months – and that clients are coming “from all walks of life”.
Aberdeen Cyrenians deputy chief executive Scott Baxter said that charity was supporting a surge of former oil workers who have been hit by the downturn in the sector, as well as people affected by recent benefits changes.
And he warned the problems were only expected to get worse in the months ahead.
Mr Baxter said: “There is effectively no affordable private rented accommodation and getting temporary accommodation is proving harder.
“We now have around 25 people sleeping rough in the city and we expect this to get worse.
“The perception is that many of these people have made bad choices and that living on the streets is essentially a life choice, but nobody wants this. And it’s clear that anyone from any background can fall off the ladder.
“This is as bad as it has been for us in the 25 years I’ve worked with the charity.”
Among those sleeping rough in Aberdeen at the moment is Jim Smith, who used to live in a tent just yards from the city’s historic Union Terrace Gardens.
The illicit encampment on the railway turntable, which was strewn with used needles, discarded alcohol bottles, tents and sleeping bags, was cleared on Friday just hours after the Press and Journal exposed the drug-taking going on there
Mr Smith, 48, has been a beggar in the city since losing his job at a vegetable processing factory in Inchture, Perth and Kinross, two and a half years ago.
He said: “I used to have a drug problem but now I don’t touch anything. We had to leave that bit of the gardens because these users would be down causing trouble. It was terrible.
“Most nights I sleep in car parks. Sometimes I sleep under the arches of the gardens. We just have nowhere to go.”
Another of the city’s homeless is 40-year-old John Knight who was made redundant as a landscape gardener in Cornwall 18 months ago.
He said: “A lot of homeless people have drug and alcohol problems, a lot but not all.
“You just sometimes feel hopeless out on the streets.”