Syringes, rough sleepers, drugs and squalid camps captured around the town on video amid calls to tackle the issue
Discarded syringes, people sprawled asleep outdoors or in doorways and rubbish filled corners in streets and back alleys where the dispossessed try to live.
These were just some of the haunting images captured on film by the chief officer of the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (Avow), John Gallanders, over the weekend of September 10 and 11 this month.
All but one were taken on the Saturday within an hour and a half of each other around the town centre, with the sad image of a person sleeping in Wrexham Library’s doorway snapped the following day on the Sunday.
Mr Gallanders was spurred to film the growing problem around Wrexham, after seeing homeless people struggling to live near the voluntary organisation’s base on Egerton Street.
He said: “I took this video as a reality check to what is going on in Wrexham.
“All bar one of the images was taken on the Saturday in the space of an hour and a half within a mile radius of Wrexham town centre, including a syringe found about 100 metres from the Guildhall.
“It may be that the problem is increasing. Or it may be that because footfall is falling around Wrexham the homeless are becoming more visible.
“The question is now, what do we do to help people in this situation?
“There are those that have been in this situation for a long time and need help rehabilitating.
“But then there are those that could be on the cusp of slipping into homelessness.
“Families need help to spot the signs, for example, if somebody is drinking too much or getting involved with drugs, so they can get support early and nip it in the bud.
“We need to be asking what can we do as a society to help?”
In February this year, the Daily Post reported how Wrexham had one of the highest rate of rough sleeping in Wales, according to figures, with the county recording the joint-highest rate of 2.9 per 10,000 households – the same as Cardiff.
Then in June a squalid shanty camp that had sprung up behind Benjamin Road hit the headlines, propelling the issue under the spotlight again.
Police chiefs feared vigilante attacks on the homeless, locals told how it was making their lives a misery and a resident at the camp described the nightmare of sleeping rough on the streets.
SEE-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/see-stark-reality-wrexhams-homeless-11924135
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