Nottingham, UK fire station offers shelter to homeless amid freezing temperatures

A UK fire station has been used to shelter rough sleepers following a spate of sub-zero temperatures sweeping the land.
Several people took the decision to stay at Nottingham’s main fire station during a pilot scheme, and stayed for four nights in the week commencing the 15th January.
The city council was delighted with the results and hailed it as a success, and also said they will run the scheme every time temperatures drop below freezing.
They said that the pledge was in response to the rising levels of homelessness, despite the ‘No Second Night Out’ initiative being brought in to end rough sleeping.
Councillor Jane Urquhart said: “We’ve added extra things this year because we know there are increased numbers of rough sleepers, we know more needs to be done.”
The council had used anti-begging posters in 2016, however these were banned for ‘reinforcing negative stereotypes’.
Since the backlash, they have been replaced with posters that state that no-one in the city needs to sleep rough.
“We make offers of accommodation to people but sometimes they refuse that help, as difficult as that is to understand,” Ms Urquhart said.
There were no beds provided by the fire department, however the volunteers from the British Red Cross provided sleeping bags, clothes, hot drinks and toiletries.
The Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue team said that the scheme didn’t interfere with their operations in any way.
Group manager Damien West said: “Our goal is to create safer communities, and sometimes this goes further than things such as fire and road safety.”