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It’s a degree above freezing, but it feels colder, an Arctic wind scissoring through the city air as the queue starts to take shape.

Men and women appear out of the darkness to form a neat line, 35 souls long, in front of the food-laden tables, waiting for the time to tick round to 5.15pm.

Tony is 64. He’s not eaten yet today and had set an alarm to make sure he was here in time, walking two miles to Digbeth from Lozells.

Steve, 56, has made his way over from Selly Park - a round trip of nearly six miles. He is hoping for something ‘spicy’ to help warm him up. Drink has been his downfall, he confides. “It cost me my marriage and my health.”

All Jane wants is a hot drink. Her coat is thin, and she doesn’t have a hat so she doesn’t want to hang around. She grabs her coffee and a bag of food and heads back to her hostel nearby.

Welcome to the Unite4Homeless charity’s Sunday night food kitchen, set up in the shadow of Birmingham Coach Station on the corner of Rea Street, Digbeth.

(Image: Jane Haynes)

It’s a weekly sanctuary for people who have nowhere to call home – at least, not in any permanent sense.

It was set up to feed the rough sleeping homeless community, but now also looks after desperate people from across the city, many who walk miles to reach it.

Anne Duffy, charity co-founder, said: “It’s heartbreaking. Nobody deserves to go to bed hungry in this day and age, or have to line up in the middle of Birmingham city centre waiting for food.

”We are seeing a growing influx of people who have a bed but not much else. Some people think being homeless is all about rough sleepers. That's a small part of the problem really – there are plenty of homeless people in hostels and refuges, and on sofas and floors.

“Lots of those who come here are on benefits and just cannot afford to live on what they have for the whole week.

(Image: Birmingham Live)

"The introduction of Universal Credit sanctions has been a big thing - people are sanctioned all the time, then they can’t pay cash contributions to supported housing or hostels and some are kicked out – they then have no option but to be on the streets.

“They come here for a hot meal, a hot drink, some company, and we give them a small bag of extra food to see them through another day.

“We go home thinking we know we have helped people.

Everyone is so polite and so grateful so it’s nice we can do our bit. If we ever run out of food because there are so many here we run to the shop to get them something.

“We don’t make them feel degraded in any way about having to queue for food."

Welfare cuts, Universal Credit sanctions and declining investment in mental health and addiction services are all playing their part – triggering a rising need for places like this.

MP Liam Byrne (Birmingham Hodge Hill), who regularly volunteers with the group, said the safety net previously relied upon by the poorest in the city now has "holes so big that people just fall through."

At least four food kitchens operate regularly across the city, complemented by food banks, hostels and charities offering lunches, and churches providing succour and prayer.

The results of an official 'count' of rough sleepers, carried out on a single night in November, showed a dramatic rise - up a staggering 60% in a year.

The group who gathered in Digbeth on Sunday night included a few rough sleepers who will later end up joining the desperate dozens who bed down on the city’s streets, huddling in corners and in stairwells, behind bins and in doorways.

(Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)

Anne and co-founder Carmel Finnegan take over the same patch of pavement for an hour a week, starting from 5.15pm. The pair, joined by fellow volunteers, set up white trestle tables on the street corner and load them up with baguettes, sandwiches and pasties, mostly donated by Greggs, Pret A Manger and Tescos.

They offer hot rice and chicken in silver foil trays, and there’s tea and coffee.

It started as a one-table operation, feeding about 20 people at a time. It's now a three table affair, serving an average of 70 people a session.

When they announce they are ready to go, the patient queue passes slowly along in front of the tables. Everyone is given a warm welcome and an opportunity to share their week’s news; newcomers are invited to talk about their situation, and to shout up about anything they need.

Tony's Story -'Loneliness is bad but one has to cope as best one can.'

(Image: Birmingham Live)

Tony Joyce, 64 - soon to be 65 he tells me – wears a snazzy fur fringed hat. I tell him his hat makes me think of Communist-era Russia; he tells me capitalism is to blame for homelessness.

“There should not be rich and poor in this wealthy country – we should all have enough.”

Tony lives in a housing association flat in Lozells - yet has left his flat to walk through the cold night for a sandwich.

“I’m not getting much money to live on so can’t afford to eat all the time, and I’m finding it too hard to cope with my flat on my own. I’ve got good friends who support me as best they can and there’s a lot worse off than me,” he adds.

We huddle together against the wind to talk, and Tony confides that the loss of a good friend was a catalyst for a downturn in his well-being.

“I’ve struggled all my life. I had a good friend John who died of cancer, we lived together; ever since he’s died it’s a lot worse than when he was alive.

“Loneliness is bad but one has to cope as best one can.”

Steve's Story - 'this is a real lifeline'

(Image: Birmingham Live)

Steve, 56, lives in a shared house in Selly Park.

“The drink took over my life. I was married, but unfortunately drink took over and my marriage ended. That’s my story. Me and my ex wife are now like best of friends and things are better.

“I’m working with a company called Scala Housing who give employment help and support, and trying to get myself back into work, warehouse work.

“This charity really makes a difference to me, helps me get by. But for some who are on the streets and have no money, this is a real lifeline. The government is just not doing enough.

“Supported housing is really expensive, and half the time you don’t get support. Even the hostels are expensive.”

Another visitor says he too has a place to stay, a rented one-bed flat nearby. “I don’t say much to my neighbours but if I feel like company I come out and speak to people if I feel up to it. I go up to the mosque too for lunch.”

Jason's Story - 'I just struggle with things really.'

Jason left home at 16, and spent time in hostels, then got a flat and a job before dropping back into homelessness. Discovering he had been adopted when he was 30 had a huge impact on him.

“I just struggle with things really. I have worked and had a flat but now I’m not working at all. Social services are trying to help me.”

He travelled in from Tipton into Birmingham earlier in the day: “I came in for something else and then decided to stay around because I knew these people would be here.

“I’m doing all right at the moment but having help like this makes all the difference.”

By 6.30pm the food, and the queue of hungry people, has gone. The trestle tables are packed away, rubbish picked up and the volunteers head off into the night.

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Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, said: “What emerges from talking to people who end up homeless or on the edge of homelessness is that they get hit by a twist of fate – domestic violence, or a job loss, or bereavement, or illness – and everything falls away.

“Once they are on the pavement it is really hard to get back up.

“There are so many out here (across the city) struggling with mental health, people self medicating with alcohol and drugs, and trapped in this cycle.

“But homelessness is not insurmountable. We have done it before – we have fixed this issue. But since 2010 the impact of austerity cuts has become impossible to ignore.”