The organisers of a homelessness protest, in which around 50 rough sleepers have pitched tents in Leeds city centre, are due to appear in court to fight a bid to disperse them.

The “tent city” was set up on 21 September to protest against a perceived lack of action by the council to tackle homelessness in Leeds.

Leeds Homeless Action Group has called on the council to provide rough sleepers with a safe space to sleep, but the council has argued there is accommodation available for every person sleeping on the streets if they want it.

Continuously staffed by volunteers, who distribute donated clothing, food and hot drinks to homeless people sleeping in the tents, the project was first pitched outside the city’s art gallery before it was ordered to move last week to make way for Yorkshire’s Olympics celebrations.

Now on its second site in Park Square, which is home to many of the city’s law firms, the protest faces having to move again as the council has issued a claim for possession of the square. The council is also asking for an injunction to stop the organisers setting up the project at other sites across the city centre. The case will be heard at Leeds county court on Monday.

Haydn Jessop, one of the protest’s organisers, said that gathering lots of the city’s rough sleepers in one place gives them “a bigger voice”. “When you get off the bus in the morning to go to work you might see one or two rough sleepers, but the total number of rough sleepers doesn’t go into people’s minds,” he said.

He argued that bringing rough sleepers together makes the scale of the problem clear. “And we’re only touching the iceberg with this,” said Jessop. “There are hundreds in Leeds, all in different areas.”

Leeds’s tent city is one of many such communities of homeless people to emerge in towns across the country, inspired by similar projects in Manchester, Nottingham and Bristol. Many of the tents and sleeping bags were salvaged after being abandoned at Leeds festival this summer.

Jessop, who was once homeless himself, wants the council to provide a permanent, secure space for the project. He said police told the group privately that crime has fallen in the area since the start of the protest because the rough sleepers are being properly provided for.

Michael Eric Bleasby, who has been homeless for four years and has been sleeping at the tent city since it started, said he has witnessed provision for homeless people decline in the city. “I used to walk around Leeds and there used to be loads of hostels, but all the hostels have shut down. They’ve all been turned into studio flats for the students and I don’t recognise it anymore,” he said.

Helen Hayton, a volunteer with the project, said rough sleepers live in constant fear of being beaten up, but that the tent city provides a safe environment. When she was volunteering at the protest’s last site late at night, she had to stop people urinating on the tents in which people were sleeping. “[The rough sleepers] are looking a lot more well because they’re getting a proper night’s sleep now,” she said.

A statement on behalf of Leeds city council, West Yorkshire police and Leeds BID (business improvement district) said helping the homeless remained an absolute priority for them. “There is a strong collaborative approach with businesses and third sector organisations to offer access to a wide range of support services and a bed for the night to ensure that no one has to sleep on the streets,” they said.

“We have asked the Leeds Homeless Action Group to become part of this collaborative approach so they can make a positive contribution and work on practical solutions to help those in genuine need. This offer still stands despite the fact that the Leeds Homeless Action Group is not an official or registered homeless support group or charitable organisation.”

The camp’s organisers have complained that figures by the Department for Communities and Local Government – which suggest 13 people were sleeping rough in Leeds in Autumn 2015, down from 15 the previous year – massively underestimate the scale of the problem. “Despite their good intentions, unfortunately the Leeds Homeless Action Group have made a number of inaccurate claims,” the statement from the authorities reads.



“The head count which they refer to relates to the number of rough sleepers in the city and not the number of homeless people. These issues are extremely complex, and the circumstances of beggars, rough sleepers and the homeless are not always interlinked or the same. “Accommodation is available in the city and offers are made to rough sleepers on a daily basis but for a variety of complex reasons some will refuse a place to stay,” they said. “As well as working with rough sleepers, the council and partners work with homeless people and people who beg on a daily basis to provide much needed support. Offers of accommodation will always be made to anyone who is without accommodation and if we are contacted or made aware of an individuals’ situation.

“While the issue of accommodation is extremely important, this does distract sometimes from other complex issues such as how we can engage people often with complex mental health needs and addictions in the support that is available.”

• This article was amended on 3 October 2016. An earlier version said Office for National Statistics figures suggested 13 people were sleeping rough in Leeds in autumn 2015. That figure was published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.