Homeless people in Lincoln are facing some of the coldest nights of the year so far. As winter sets in, there are a few things you can do to help vulnerable people in the city.
A number of agencies and charities provide support and signposting services to the homeless when plummeting temperatures pose a fatal risk.
A record 726 homeless people died in England and Wales in 2018, up by a fifth on the year before.
There are ways to prevent this:
Alert the authorities
People in Lincoln city centre pass by homeless people every day and often feel helpless, or don’t know what they can do to make a difference.
One of the easiest ways to alert local authorities if you’re concerned about someone in your area is throughStreetLink.
You can notify local outreach teams using this service if you have seen someone over 18 sleeping rough. The details you provide are sent to the team operating in your area to help find them and connect them to support.
If a person is thought to be under 18, it’s important that Lincolnshire Police are called instead on 101. If a person appears to be in immediate danger or needs urgent care, people should call 999 immediately.
Lincolnshire’s district councils have all signed up to a severe weather emergency protocol. This is implemented when nighttime temperatures are predicted to be zero degrees Celsius or below for three consecutive nights and is extended to all, regardless of eligibility.
When triggered, councils must actively seek to identify all those sleeping rough and provide them with emergency accommodation.
Our charity heroes
Staff and volunteers from charities like P3 go out in the early hours of the morning to respond to referrals, as well as visiting known rough sleeping sites.
They are commissioned by Lincolnshire County Council and also partner with multiple organisations in the city to access care like mental health, drug and alcohol services.
If you see someone sleeping rough, you can alert the street outreach team by emailing [email protected] or contact them on freephone 0808 281 0280.
Last year, as the Beast from the East battered the county, the Lincolnshire P3 group of just 10 people managed to reach between 60 and 70 people and find them accommodation.
The team found one man trying to take shelter under a bridge in the city centre. Photo: P3
There are a number of other voluntary homelessness groups in the city, like Let Them Eat Cake.
This charity takes hot food, hot and cold drinks, first aid and support directly out to those sleeping rough. You can contact them about how you can help on their Facebook page here.
Donate warmth
The warm rail. Photo: Connor Creaghan for The Lincolnite
The rail, located at St Mary’s Guildhall, on the corner of Sibthorpe Street, is designed to get the homeless through the winter with coats, jumpers, scarves, hats, gloves and sleeping bags.
It’s open for donations from 9.30pm to 1.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays over the next few months.
New shelter services
Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Lincoln’s Nomad Centre is supported by YMCA Lincolnshire.
It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and will provide three hot meals a day.
Specialist wraparound 24 hour support will be provided by a range of partners to support the health, wellbeing and individual needs of those accessing the centre.
The new Centre will provide 20 individual en-suite rooms to remove barriers to engagement and provide dignity and the privacy required for a restful night’s sleep.
The new Centre’s name was chosen in tribute of the former efforts of the founders and volunteers involved in establishing the original Nomad Trust, 20 years ago.
The Nomad Trust can be contacted on 01522 504589 (Night 01522 504588) or [email protected]
An ongoing battle
Homelessness has been on the increase for many years in Lincoln. Figures released last year showed the number of applications for help with homelessness more than doubled in the city since 2010.
A 59.5% rise was recorded across all Lincolnshire authorities in total, and the highest homelessness figure was recorded in South Kesteven District Council.
Figures are expected to be higher still, since data did not include rough sleepers not seeking assistance from a local council.
The anxieties and reluctance some have in dealing with their local council was echoed by the City of Lincoln Council’s Intervention team. They said the help they offer is not always taken.
“There’s a bed for everyone” said the charity Hope Lincoln, who stopped their outreach service in December last year because they felt it enabled people to make bad choices.
If that’s true, it’s more important than ever to make sure vulnerable people are not given up on and left outside in the cold.
Spotted an error? Please notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
Families in Lincoln are being encouraged to save the spirit of Christmas with a new Safari-style trail in the city centre.
Lincoln BIG has organised the Christmas Spirits Trail alongside QR code experts High Street Safari and it will, much like the annual pumpkin trail, have characters hidden in shop windows in Lincoln.
Ten Christmas spirit characters will be out there to be found in your very own High Street Safari adventure, using smartphones to log your discoveries.
The trail will begin on December 4 and run until January 4, 2021, so long as COVID-19 restrictions allow it, and should take around 45 minutes to complete.
It is free for families to take part in, and a Christmas e-book is available to all who complete the trail.
All characters come with a unique QR code which can be scanned to create an animation on your smartphone.
Families will also be able to take selfies with the character, encouraging people to use social media to share their findings.
The story revolves around Albert Claus, the less famous brother of Father Christmas, as he tries to maintain the spirit of Christmas by spreading joy bubbles on Christmas Day.
The trail will help you find Albert and learn what happened to him, before reading the conclusion of the story in the e-book at the end.
For more information and to begin the trail when it goes live on December 4, visit the High Street Safari website.
A twist on Italian street food with “grandma style” homemade dishes will be served as a new business takes over the former Cafe Pino on lower Lincoln High Street.
Dario Rossi, 41, is from the Italian region of Sicily, and has been in the food industry for over 20 years, having owned restaurants in Worksop, Sheffield and Doncaster.
He is now getting ready to open at Cafe Pino and plans to retain the name when he launches his business in mid-December, depending on the latest government guidance.
Italian street food will be served, including pizzas, mini calzones, lasagne and Arancini rice balls with a variety of fillings, as well as vegetarian and vegan options.
There will also be continental breakfast items, a variety of cakes, paninis, and tea and coffee.
The new cafe will initially create around three to four new jobs.
Dario Rossi is aiming to launch his new business in mid-December. | Photo: Lincolnite
A banner on the current signage says a “new vibrant Italian experience” is coming soon and Dario told The Lincolnite: “It will be Sicilian based street food and we know how to do it properly, grandma style and homemade, which I don’t think anywhere else in Lincoln does.
“We have been in the trade for a very long time and decided to invest in Lincoln as it is a lovely city.”
The lead singer and guitarist of a Lincoln indie rock group believes they are “changing what it means to be a band in the 21st century” after their social media following boomed despite the pressures of coronavirus on the music industry.
The band’s rise to close to 100,000 followers on TikTok happened in just one week, while their Instagram following is now up to around 17,000.
Before lockdown The Rills also had around 300 monthly listeners on Spotify and that number has now soared beyond expectations to 50,000.
Mitch Spencer, 23, formed The Rills in 2017 with friends Callum Warner-Webb (bass guitar) and Mason Cassar (drums) after music saved him in his recovery from a skateboarding accident seven years earlier.
Social media platforms, especially TikTok, saw the band’s profile soar including this video entitled ‘Why you should stream our music instead of the Artic Monkeys’ that attracted over 1.5 million views in just three days.
Their latest single, Stardog was released on Wednesday, November 25.
The Rills already have tour dates planned next year in Southampton, London, Manchester and Birmingham, with a Lincoln date still to be confirmed.
In addition, The Rills also have plans to feature on national Dutch radio station KINK Indie and in German music magazine The Postie.
The band’s 2020 single The Angler was played on BBC Radio 6 Music and Amazing Radio, while their debut EP is expected to be released in spring 2021.
The Rills released a new single in November 2020 entitled ‘Stardog’. | Photo: Lewis Budd
Mitch told The Lincolnite he believes The Rills are “currently one of the only bands in the world that’s managed to keep active during the pandemic”.
He said: “Most bands have been limited to just releasing new music and updating their fans once a month, but we’ve grown a huge online fanbase through TikTok and Instagram Reels.
“We’ve done it all by experimenting with music marketing and completely changing what it means to be a band in the 21st century.
“There are a lot of famous artists on Tiktok now, but we’ve been one of the first to do it, and only a handful have been as successful at it as we have! We’ve managed to adapt to the times and are really lucky to still be growing in such a turbulent music industry.
“Obviously we want to try get this as big as it can be, and the dream in the next 12 months would be to sell out the big room at the Engine Shed and do a headline UK tour! We’d love to play Glastonbury too, that would be incredible.”
He added that the comments and messages from fans is what’s getting him through the “never ending rescheduled live shows” during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rills in China Town in London. | Photo: Lewis Budd
Music was crucial in Mitch’s recovery from a Skateboard accident, which caused a bleed to the brain. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Last summer, Mitch played an acoustic version of the band’s track ‘Us and Them’, which you can check out below:
Whatsapp
