NO-ONE is sleeping rough on Huddersfield’s streets for the first time in living memory.

Thanks to a major homeless project all of the town’s serial street dwellers have been given at least temporary accommodation.

Ian Brooke has been leading the street homelessness project since taking a secondment from his regular job as a Kirklees housing options and advice officer at the end of August.

He said: “We have seen some major breakthroughs very quickly considering the difficult histories some people have.

“As far as we know this is the first time there hasn’t been anyone sleeping rough in Huddersfield.

“It’s about the individuals wanting to help themselves combined with our informal approach. We don’t see people as customers, we see them as individuals.”

Funded by a Government grant, the project has been running informal dinner-time advice sessions for homeless people at the Methodist Mission on Lord Street, a regular haven for many rough sleepers.

Working with street rangers, drugs and alcohol charity Kirklees Lifeline and housing organisations, an approach has been developed that aims to address all of an individual’s needs.

Of the 13 known rough sleepers who were using the streets in August, one has been given a tenancy with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, two have been found private rented housing and the rest are in temporary accommodation.

Mr Brooke said: “One of them is a gentleman who has been on the streets for the best part of 20 years. He’s almost 60. He has had enough and realised he needs to sort his life out.

“We’re waiting to see how they do with the hope of moving them on when they are ready.

“A lot of them have spent a lot of time on the streets and aren’t used to dealing with the problems and issues of maintaining a tenancy.

“It remains to be seen with some of them how things will go, because there are people with high support needs, but at the moment all of them are off the streets.”

The project has been praised by police, councillors and health professionals.

Insp Adrian Waugh, who leads Huddersfield South Neighbourhood Policing Team, said it had helped to reduce problems of people drinking and begging no the street.

“We used to get calls about street drinkers numerous times a day,” he said.

“That has massively reduced. Dealing with those people can be a massive drain on resources, so I think the people involved in this project are doing a first class job.”

Mayor of Kirklees, Clr Julie Stewart-Turner, chose Supporting People in Crisis in Kirklees – a partnership between the cafe and welcome centre at Huddersfield Methodist Mission – as her charity for her year in office.

She said: “This work is massively important. People can end up in crisis so incredibly easily and they need somewhere to turn to when that happens.

“It has been a problem for decades.

“Getting everyone off the streets and into accommodation is quite unique.”

Rachel Haigh, nurse practitioner at the Whitehouse Centre doctor’s surgery on New North Parade, said there had been a “definite reduction” in the number of rough sleepers seeking healthcare.

“Obviously this is really good news,” she said.

“But it doesn’t automatically reduce the number of people attending because they can continue to come here while they are settling in to their new home and learning how to engage with services.

“Their health needs don’t automatically and immediately reduce just because they are no longer sleeping rough. For example, they will still suffer from diabetes or have issues with alcohol or drugs if this was the case beforehand.”

A spokeswoman for Kirklees Council’s adults and communities department, said: “Ian, working with other agencies, has helped get some of the most vulnerable people off the streets into warm, safe, accommodation”.