Filmed in Brighton and Hove, which has seen the UK’s biggest increase in homelessness over the past year, we meet Paige, who is 21 and sleeps in a graveyard; Tanya, who is 7 months pregnant and sleeps rough with her partner; and Jo-Jo, who is 21, smoking spice and sleeping in shop doorways.
The eye-opening daily life story of women sleeping rough on Brighton’s streets continues. Paige has had a fresh start in a hostel but her daughter is being put up for adoption, while Maria has succumbed to the grip of heroin addiction, having had two children removed from her care. With around three-quarters of mothers sleeping on the streets having had kids taken away, can they break the vicious cycle?
The weather is changing and for the girls sleeping rough in Brighton, relationships are getting strained. In Brighton autumn is coming, and with it comes tough choices. Paige is facing life on her own, while Maria and Tony are arguing and sharing their shop door entrance with Arna. More than half of the women sleeping rough having been threatened with violence in the last year* and no one wants to be on their own on the street.
Kelly is 18 and has been homeless since leaving care a year and a half ago. She’s living in a tent in a park in Brighton and dreams of being a singer. 22 year old Charlotte and her boyfriend Lance are sleeping rough having been evicted from their flat. Rough sleeping in England has risen for the 7th year running, with Brighton and the South-East having the most rough sleepers outside London. We follow Kelly and Charlotte as the temperature on the streets starts to drop.
Deaths of rough sleepers spike in the winter months as the temperature plummets, and with a snowstorm forecast, there’s a rush for Kelly, Charlotte and Diana to find somewhere warm to sleep. Kelly has found a room with her boyfriend in a shared house, but Diana and Greg are still sleeping in their tent as the snow sets in. Meanwhile Charlotte and Lance receive a surprise gift from a kind stranger.
Kelly may have a room, but still needs to earn money on the street. Brought up in care and with no qualifications, she’s busking for now but hopes an open mic session will lead to bigger things. Further down the coast Zoe started sleeping rough when a relationship broke down, she has learning difficulties and has found refuge in a winter night shelter. Meanwhile, for Caroline home is now an abandoned shelter on the seafront.
22-year-old Charlotte and her boyfriend Lance are sleeping rough in Brighton again after the winter night shelter closed in the spring. Kelly, now approaching her 19th birthday, has moved back to Hastings after her boyfriend was arrested in Brighton, and Ocean, who is 20, has returned from France after her work placement didn’t work out. In the last ten years, the number of people sleeping rough in Brighton & Hove has increased by nearly twenty times - more than anywhere else in the UK. We continue to follow Kelly and Ocean as they negotiate life on the streets while Charlotte faces her biggest challenge so far.
Kelly is trying to adjust to life back in Hastings and get housed. Ocean moves back in with Nikki, who is helping her search for somewhere more permanent to live. Charlotte finally leaves the streets for the first time in two years. We meet Kayley who is sleeping rough with her partner in Eastbourne, despite being pregnant.There are no official figures to account for how many homeless people are pregnant women.
In the final episode of the series, Brogan, 24, is in Brighton and has been sleeping rough or squatting across Europe for the past 6 years. She is currently searching for a suitable empty building to squat in. Studies have shown that young care leavers are more likely to have sofa surf or sleep rough than the majority of the population. After leaving care, Kelly has been sleeping rough and is currently sofa surfing in Hastings. She may have finally found somewhere to be housed. Becky, another care leaver, is currently sleeping rough in Hove after losing everything, just over a year ago.
