A homeless man sits on a street in Liverpool city centre (Image: Liverpool Echo)

Hundreds of people are facing a grim Christmas on the streets of Liverpool and Merseyside, with rough sleeping hitting record figures for this time of year. In Merseyside, there were an estimated 289 rough sleepers in September - the latest date for official figures - which was 49 more than the previous year and more than double the 127 rough sleepers counted in 2021.

In our area, far more rough sleepers were counted in Liverpool than anywhere else, 161 in September, three times as many as in St Helens (55), which had the next highest number.

The rough sleeping rate - the number of people sleeping on the streets when compared with the size of the population - is also highest in Liverpool. For every

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