it would mean the world to me because then i know i have got my own place. i don t have to continuously be on my feet all day moving around. i can have my own space at the end of the day. sam was soon joined by simon, who d spent the day in a&e with chest pains. when the shelter opened, sam managed to get one of the dozen available beds, but the rest had been allocated. so simon was forced to join the thousands of others who each evening call england s pavements their home. michael buchanan, bbc news, bristol. joining me now is andrew connell, the salvation army s policy advisor on homelessness. hello to you, andrew. what does the salvation army want the government to do? they say they are putting hundreds of millions of pounds into this problem but they do have a target of ending refs sleeping by the end of next year. how can they
employment and accommodation purely because of the rent increases. it s really frightening for those people that have never experienced rough sleeping before. today s increased figures come after several years of decreases from 2017 s peak, aided by a huge effort through covid to get everyone off the streets. but overall, rough sleeping is up nearly 75% since 2010. what our team is seeing in terms of their caseload, of the number of people who are approaching us for help when they re rough sleeping is a sustained increase and an increased risk for sleeping, and it s slightly harder to get people into accommodation. at the night shelter in bristol, run by the julian trust, sam atkinson has turned up early, hoping to secure a bed. been using the bristol bus shelter if i don t get a bed here. the 23 year old has been homeless for two months after leaving what he said was a toxic relationship. but life s looking up. he s shortly about to move into a flat.
sam was soon joined by simon, who d spent the day in a&e with chest pains. when the shelter opened, sam managed to get one of the dozen available beds, but the rest had been allocated. so simon was forced to join the thousands of others who each evening call england s pavements their home. michael buchanan, bbc news, bristol. joining me now is matt downie, chief executive of crisis uk, the homeless charity. what are you seeing on the ground? the figures out today reflect what we ve been saying for some time, which is the numbers of people experiencing rough sleeping but otherforms experiencing rough sleeping but other forms of homelessness have been going up steadily. that is because obviously the cost of living crisis is pushing more people into extreme poverty, that the numbers of homes available to rent are going down because as rents go up, and