TACKLING addictions as well as housing is needed to combat Glasgow’s rough sleeping issue, according to people working with those on the streets.

The Evening Times accompanied the Simon Community street team helping people living on the city streets on a daily basis.

Addiction, mental health and relationship breakdowns were just some of the pressing concerns for the many men and women with no place to call home.

Glasgow’s ‘Golden Z‘of Argyle Street, Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street is the beating retail heart of the city’s economy.

Millions of pounds flow through tills of some of the biggest names as shoppers walk the streets with bags emblazoned with designer labels.

The same streets are also home for dozens of people sleeping in doorways and back lanes every night.

Others come into the city centre to beg for enough cash to feed an alcohol or drug addiction then go back to some form of shelter or temporary accommodation.

On a Monday morning 8 am start it didn’t take long before we encounter the first rough sleeper in Glasgow city centre.

Jim Thomson, a support worker, is doing one of the regular morning walks to check on rough sleepers to see if any help can be offered.

Minutes after leaving the hub at Glasgow Cross, he sees a man lying in a doorway in Argyle Street.

Only a part of his face is visible as he is tightly wrapped in his sleeping bag and beanie had pulled down to keep out the cold.

He is still asleep. Jim checks he is ok and we move on.

In Royal Exchange Square under the arch, a popular spot for begging, another man sits reading a book.

He needs some hospital treatment for a long standing problem and Jim is encouraging him to get seen. He checks he doesn’t need anything, sleeping bag? Clean needles? Then we move on.

At the old BHS whose now empty doorways have become home for many people a man and woman, a couple well known to Jim and other support workers, are asleep in their sleeping bags.

They can’t be roused but are alive, so we move on. The couple have been on the streets for a long time and are well known to support workers and social services.

Further along a young woman is awake, sitting against a bollard, knees up to her chin, settled in her begging spot for the day.

She and her boyfriend are sleeping in a tent just outside the city centre. She says they can’t get into emergency or temporary accommodation because they have a dog.

She is encouraged to go and present for accommodation anyway.

There is another woman on the city streets who is pregnant but we do not see her that day.

Further down, sitting with his back to a street bin is a young man in a sleeping bag with another little bag of belongings.

Jim has met him before and thinks he can be helped today.

Adam, (not his real name) looks in urgent need of some food, heat and hot water.

He has a few cuts and grazes but is awake and talkative.

When Jim asks if he would like to go and present for accommodation, he is up on his feet and eager to seek help.

We set off for the long walk from Sauchiehall Street to the TwoMax homeless centre in Gorbals.

First stop is a trip to Social Bite café in the city centre where he is able to get a free breakfast and hot drink.

One the way Adam tells his story.

He is not from Glasgow but has family in the city and been living rough for some time.

He said his current time on the streets was sparked after relationship problems and leaving the temporary accommodation he was in with his girlfriend.

After the most recent breakdown he said he couldn’t stay there and left to go back on the streets and he thought he wouldn’t get accommodation because he chose to leave.

After a short interview with staff to establish some facts he is on his way to get new keys and will have a roof over his head that night.

Adam leaves with Jim to sort out an emergency food parcel and try and arrange benefits for him.

Had Jim not come across Adam that morning he would doubtless still be sleeping on the street.

Jim said the lack of a roof is not the priority for most people on the streets only a part of the problem.

He said: “We need more emergency accommodation to get people off the streets and we need more supported accommodation. Most of them are just people lost in addiction who are in survival mode.”

Hugh Hill, Director of Services and Development, Simon Community Scotland, said: “In addition to rapid access to housing people we need to deliver joined up and accessible responses to improving peoples physical health and interventions that respond to the mental health challenges people experience.”