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Birmingham Muslims are providing beds for the city’s homeless community throughout the coming freezing months.

From Monday (Jan 6), rough sleepers will be able to bunk down safely in a central location for as long as the cold snap lasts.

For the first time, Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre (GLMCC), Muslim Aid and the As-Suffa Institute have pooled their resources, fundraising and expertise to tackle the homeless problem blighting our streets.

A large rota of volunteers from city mosques will be spending time away from their families so they run the unit on Lionel Street for up to 25 men, until March.

Kamran Hussain, from GLMCC in Small Heath , said: “The problem of homelessness is increasing in the Midlands and the UK. We are now reaching crisis levels with people dying on the streets.

“It’s important that faith and community groups do their part to help those in need. As an Islamic faith institute, we are required to take care of the poor and less fortunate.

“Many organisations don’t have the capacity to run a project as large as this. This requires finances, a huge volunteer base and a lot of organisation and coordination.

“By getting together it doesn’t put the hardship of running such a project onto one single organisation.

“By housing the homeless, we will create a safe space for them and give them a little relief from their harsh lives.

“We will also have people who work with the homeless, to provide advice on how they can get themselves off the streets.”

Mr Hussain said the users would be provided with the help needed to get off the streets.

“We hope to get a number of the homeless into permanent accommodation. Many of the homeless find it hard to navigate through the benefits system to get access to financial support or housing.

“Last year, through our project at Green Lane, we managed to get about 10 people into housing, which was a huge achievement.”

Homeless deaths in the UK Figures first released in December 2018 showed 2,627 homeless people died between 2013 and 2017 across England and Wales.

Around 40% of the deaths seen over the last five years were deemed accidents, but one in every 10 were due to intentional self-harm.

Some 835 people died from either accidental or intentional drug overdoses - nearly a third of the total number of deaths.

Opiates such as heroin, morphine and methadone proved the most deadly - responsible for 507 deaths over the five years.

Cocaine and benzodiazepine (sleeping pills) were responsible for 70 and 85 deaths respectively.

Meanwhile, at least 282 homeless people died from alcohol poisoning between 2013 and 2017.

Other causes of death included assault (24 deaths), flu and pneumonia (49) and HIV (six).

Homeless men aged 45-49 were the most at-risk, with 340 losing their lives in the last five years.

However, 24 teenagers aged 15 to 19 also died in 2013-17 - 21 boys and

three girls.

London and the North West had by far the largest numbers of deaths of homeless people in 2017 out of the English regions, with 136 and 119 estimated deaths respectively.

London had more than one-fifth (23%) of the estimated total number of homeless deaths in England and Wales. In contrast, Wales had fewer deaths than any of the regions of England (13 in 2017).

Generally, February proved the deadliest time of year, with 253 homeless people dying during the month, followed by December (242) and March (239).

In 2018, 23 homeless people died in the city - the highest in the country and an increase of 18 deaths from the previous year.

As-Suffa has hosted a four day soup kitchen since 2012 and a night shelter during the cold weather since 2016.

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Altaf Kazi, Muslim Aid’s Head of UK Programmes, said: “God reminds us repeatedly to feed and look after the poor and needy. As Muslims we must fulfil our obligations.

“The Prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings of God be upon him) said ‘He is not a believer whose stomach is full while the neighbour to his side goes hungry.’”