Worthing'S Rough Sleepers More Than Ten Times Official Figure

9.15.27am GMT Wed 13th Feb 2008

Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Services, Cllr Alan Rice, has learnt recently that the official figure released last year for the number of rough sleepers in Worthing seriously understated the true picture.

The official number was three which was met with incredulity at the time from both local charity workers and a "Big Issue" seller who wrote to the local paper expressing his disbelief.

Experiencing "sleeping rough" for himself at Worthing Churches Homeless Projects "sleepout" recently, Alan learnt from the charity that the true figure was around thirty five - a figure confirmed to him subsequently by the police.

Commenting on the figure, Alan Rice said:

"It's the way they count them - as I understand it, if someone is sitting up in a doorway, rather than lying down asleep, they are not counted".

"But whether the figure is 3 or 33 we as a council should be doing our utmost to ensure that every one of these people have somewhere to sleep whatever their circumstances - that as Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing is my aim".