Planned cuts to shelters in England will cost lives, say homeless people

Garry Stowe: ‘If you don’t have a support network when you are in recovery you are going to fail.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Homeless people struggling with addiction and their mental health have attacked a looming wave of council cuts to hostel services as “plain stupidity” that will cost lives.

A deepening town hall funding crisis is threatening shelters and support workers from Hampshire to Leicestershire, affecting hundreds of homeless people from the start of next month despite rising homelessness.