Mixed views on extra cash to help Leeds and Bradford homeless

Will cash boost be enough to get rough sleepers off streets? Image caption, Mark Green welcomes the funding, but says more needs to be done to tackle longer term issues surrounding rough sleepers By Charles Heslett , Reporting from in Bradford and Amber Ward , Reporting from in Leeds Published 4 hours ago Earlier this week, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin pledged that almost £4m would be used to help people sleeping rough across the county, with Leeds and Bradford's councils set to get the largest amount - so how has that announcement been received on the streets of both those cities?

Begging outside a convenience store on Sunbridge Road in Bradford, Mark Green, 55, says he has been "in and out" of prison since 2011 and has been living rough in Bradford for just under a month. With Bradford Council set to get £688,194 from the mayor's office, with the cash aimed at helping provide accommodation and targeted support to people with the most complex needs, he says that will certainly help the situation in the short-term.

However, in the longer term, Green says he believes it will only prove to be a "sticking plaster". Image caption, A tent can be seen on Sunbridge Road pitched on the pavement opposite a convenience store where rough sleepers gather Green explains: "It depends how they do it - and where they put you. "If it's somewhere like Sunbridge Road [hostel], where they keep putting me, then it's not a good place. "We've got working girls in front of you on Bridge Street.

You've got punters trying to pick them up. "You've got all the robbing going on up there, too." Green, who says he grew up in the care system, says the authorities need to look at longer-term solutions as well. "I think I need, like, a home," he says. "But I've never had it, so I don't know. But at my age now, I'm just ready for going." Image caption, Kadie Lawford and sister Emily make food to give out to rough sleepers in the city centre While Green gives his views, a woman and her younger sister come up and take out a warm meal in a foil takeaway container from a yellow bag and hand it over along with a spoon.

Kadin Lawford, 22, from Idle, says she recently decided she was going to make about 20 meals and give them out to people living on the streets of her home city. "The other day it started because I thought, it's freezing, people are freezing. "I thought it's no skin off my back if I go give them a hot meal. "We're quite lucky and people don't understand how fortunate we are." The West Yorkshire's mayor's announcement came after the government said it was doubling its funding in support of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's promise to give every rough sleeper in England a route off the streets by Christmas.

Lawford, a children's care worker, says she was initially unaware of the new funding, but her mum knew about Burnham's pledge to ending rough sleeping . She says: "When I told my mum what we were going to do, she was like, 'oh, he [Burnham] is trying to get people inside over Christmas'. "I didn't know about it, but I think it's brilliant." Image caption, Freda Dyson says the charity she works for fed 160 people for free on one day alone this week Freda Dyson is operations manager for the Immanuel Project on Westgate in Bradford.

It provides free lunches on a daily basis, including to the city's rough sleepers. "For example, on Monday we served 160 people at lunchtime. We're very busy every day," she says. Dyson says she thinks the new funding will be "absolutely amazing, as long as it goes to the right services". "What you tend to find is that money goes to the bigger charities," she explains. "Then the smaller charities, which are becoming less and less, they struggle."

Image caption, Chris Fields is the CEO of St George's Crypt, which has been in Leeds for 96 years In Leeds, Chris Fields, chief operating officer of the St George's Crypt homelessness charity, which has been based in the city centre for almost 100 years, is not convinced how much the new money will help to get people off the streets. Leeds City Council is set to get the biggest share of the mayor's money - a total of £1,641,767 - but Fields says it may not be enough.

"Between us all, we can probably put up some emergency accommodation to make sure everybody is off the streets," he says. "But it's dealing with the symptoms, not the cause. "The cause is mental health, ill health. It's lack of housing, it's drugs, it's alcohol, it's family breakdown. All that. "I don't think there's enough money in the Treasury to deal with that at this moment in time." Get in touch Your Voice Contact form Contact form Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds , catch up with the latest episode of Look North .

Related topics Bradford Leeds Homelessness Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin More on this story Mayor announces £3.7m of funding to help homeless Published 5 days ago Funding set to double for plan to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas Published 6 days ago