What we need is a trickle, not a flood.

We know that if we put out a call for bedding we’d be inundated with offers, but we’d probably need a warehouse to store it and a Pickford’s van to collect. [We have neither a warehouse or a big van and the numbers of those we see means just a few items each week will suffice.]

The street-life of a blanket used to be a couple of days [when they got wet, they stayed wet]. Now, though, we provide heavy duty bin-liners [not available from supermarkets] and our clients will tend to sleep inside them. This both protects clients from the elements as well as giving them something to store their other, meagre, belongings during the day. Duvets have replaced blankets, but the most popular by far are sleeping bags – it being just as important to have a layer of bedding under one as well as on top. When the weather is really rough, with ice and snow on the ground, we suggest newspapers also be used to wrap round the client inside the sleeping bag – as many know, ‘layers’ are important.