The team searching tunnels to help rough sleepers

Tree trunks and tunnels are just some of the places being searched by a rough sleeping team as the amount of people sleeping on the streets of Derby rises.

The BBC joined Daisy Capenerhurst and Emma Bates as they checked rough-sleeping hotspots in the city to offer help.

Daisy and Emma work for the Rehousing Engagement Support Team (REST) at Derby Homes, the city council's arms-length management company.

They find a man sleeping in a shop doorway who turns down an invitation to make a housing appointment, but a couple sleeping outside another shop agree to meet them later.

Emma says they have already been accommodated several times, but struggle to meet a curfew because of their drug use.

"When we do put them in the refuges there is a time when they have to be in, and obviously if they're intoxicated they can't get there for that time," she says.

Nearby we find another man drinking and taking drugs in a narrow brick tunnel where he used to sleep.

The outreach team has placed him in a hostel, and is now trying to find him specialist "supported accommodation".

Daisy also shows us drug needles in a rubbish-strewn car park where three people used to share a mattress.

She feels this is a success-story because they accepted help to start drug treatment, and now have long-term housing.

Lisa, 46, who has also received help, says she ended up on the streets after being evicted from a hostel while she was using drugs.

"It's horrible, sleeping in doorways, sleeping on car parks and the floor's freezing cold.

"Am I going to get attacked? Am I going to get raped? Am I going to get beat up, stabbed, robbed?"

Lisa says she was so desperate she smashed a window in a deliberate attempt to be arrested.

"I committed a crime to get off the street, I wanted to go to prison because I thought I'd come out and then get some housing in place," she says.

But suitable housing is in short supply, so Lisa was offered a temporary sofa bed at Safe Space in the city, where she is now receiving support and hopes she can avoid returning to the streets.

David, 55, was referred to Safe Space after hospital treatment for serious injuries from a road accident.

"The hospital said 'if we release you into the street, you'll get pneumonia again and you'll die'.

"It's cold, it's wet, it's damp, and as you get older you get more ill. If it wasn't for this place, I'd be dead now," he said.

David says he was evicted from his last hostel after a "disagreement" with another resident, and - like Lisa - he resorted to committing crimes.

"I'd get locked up so I had somewhere to stay, but then you realise it's costing the taxpayers money [if you] keep going back to prison.

"I can't go back down that road again, I don't want to be a bad taste in my grandson's mouth when he talks about me.

"I want him to say 'he was in addiction, in crime all his life, but he sorted it'," he said.

David and Lisa are being supported by a city housing service that identified a sharp rise in street homelessness in Derby last year.

A total of 631 people spent at least one night sleeping rough in 2025, according to figures released by Derby Homes to the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

That compares with 473 rough sleepers in 2024 and 290 in 2023.

Last year's figure included 83 women - Emma Bates says many have fled domestic violence - and refugees have also been found sleeping rough.

Most local rough sleepers are offered some form of temporary accommodation, but that is not available to people from out of town.

Emma and Daisy show us two tents pitched under a busy flyover, where they check whether two men are safe and well.

One has been offered so-called "reconnection" to the local council area where he is entitled to housing support.

Emma says another man, with no passport or immigration status, was returned to Pakistan after months sleeping outside the Council House.

"Very cheerful man, he'd wake up full of life. We tried to engage with immigration and get him sorted, he's doing well," she said.

The team say they also found one man who could not afford his bus fare back to Scotland after coming to the Download Festival and he was helped to get back home to Glasgow.

Emma also recalls a homeless father who moved into a hollowed-out tree trunk with pens and colouring books, for when his daughter came to visit.

And Daisy shows us where she found another man sleeping at the old Assembly Rooms car park.

"[He] put pictures up, he used to paint down there and hang up all his clothing.

"He created a little home for himself," she said.

Derby Homes says people can help rough sleepers by contacting their team through Streetlink.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, support is available via the BBC Action Line

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