Demand for winter shelter by the homeless in Gravesend has already soared past last year's figures.

Church group Sanctuary offered help to 106 people from December 2015 to March last year, but this year's number is even higher with almost two months still to run.

Sanctuary provides overnight shelter at Gravesend Methodist Church. Homeless people can visit during the day to have a shower, a change of clothes, or experience a sense of community they do not get on the streets.

Lorna Nolan, one of the project’s administrators, alongside husband Stephen, said homelessness was getting notably worse.

She said: “All of the housing associations, ourselves, charities Shelter and Porchlight, have been busier than last year.

“The caricature of someone homeless is a dirty old man with a bag and a blanket, but these are ordinary people who have lost their jobs and lost their homes.”

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Sanctuary has served 932 meals this winter, prevented 260 sleeps on the street, and worked with other agencies to help re-home 23 people. Mrs Nolan said people were struggling to cope with the cost of housing across Kent, with shelters having to be set up from Dartford to Dover and everywhere in between.

"All of the housing associations, ourselves, charities Shelter and Porchlight, have been busier than last year" Lorna Nolan

The demand was exacerbated by an exceptionally cold start to the new year, with high winds making night-time temperatures feel even colder.

Councils are obliged to implement a severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) to combat such conditions, and Gravesham council activated its own last week as snowfall arrived.

However, the senior pastor at Sanctuary, Tom Griffiths, said: “SWEP doesn’t mean diddly-squat. Last week they implemented it here, but if you’re homeless, how are you going to find out it’s been implemented?

“How do you know where to go? The council offices are closed at night. People are told to come along to Sanctuary, which they do anyway.”

Gravesham council’s officially recorded population of rough sleepers is just six people, but Sanctuary’s figures show the number is far higher – and rising.

Sanctuary’s overnight shelter has space for 20 people, but it regularly holds more.

Last Thursday’s snow meant there were 30 people staying in the shelter.

Mr Griffiths said: “Shelter has become a home for a lot of them and they trust us. If you need a bed, we don’t care who you are or where you come from.”

Read our full interview with Sanctuary’s Tom Griffiths on Gravesham’s homelessness crisis in tomorrow's (Thursday) Gravesend Messenger.