Emma Sweeney: Catching up with the homeless hotel inhabitants

When lockdown was announced in early March, Greater Manchester said that it would make 1000 hotel rooms available for homeless people and rough sleepers.

In the end officials believe that over 2000 rough sleepers and homeless people in the region were housed in hotels during the course of the pandemic.

One of the people who benefitted from this was Simon Potts, who is still living in a hotel in South Manchester.

He said that he has been "exciting but scary at the same time" and that even now he still sleeps on the bed with his coats over him instead of the bedding, and that it took him a long time to get used to feeling safe.

Living in the hotel has meant that Simon has been able to combat his health issues: putting on two stone and dealing with his addiction.

Support workers and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, believe that schemes like this could work on a wider scale.

Andy Burnham said that Greater Manchester is committed to keeping people off the streets, but that the government must do its bit to support them.