25% on street are foreigners

MORE than three-quarters of rough sleepers in Edinburgh are foreign, a leading charity has said.

Bethany Christian Trust, which is a month into its winter project to ensure homeless people have food and shelter from night to night, said the vast majority of those it picked up were from abroad.

Edinburgh winter care shelter manager Norrie Webb said: “It could be because many would have taken cash-in-hand work when they first arrived rather than waiting to get on the system. But that means when the work dries up it is far more difficult to get access to benefits.

“They also don’t have the network of friends and family that people from the UK have here.”