A small group of volunteers in Wales have converted a double-decker bus into a portable night shelter for homeless people.

Helping Open People’s Eyes (HOPE) have been trying to support rough sleepers in Gwent for about four years, but decided a year ago to fundraise to buy a bus having been inspired by a similar project in Bristol.

Ian and Tammy Smith, the couple who lead HOPE, bought the second-hand vehicle for £5,000 and have spent 12 months refitting it with beds, showers, toilets, and a kitchen.

The work on the mobile shelter is now complete and the iconic red London double-decker will be officially launched in the coming weeks, after £20,000-worth of work was done.

Mr Smith said the project had been hard work but worth it. “We have been feeding the homeless for the last four years.

The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Show all 10 1 /10 The Stats: Homelessness in the UK The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Sleeping rough up 165% from 2010 The total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2018 was 4,677, up 2,909 people or 165% from the 2010 total of 1,768 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London rough sleepers up 13% The number of people sleeping rough increased by 146 or 13% in London since 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London accounted for 27% of people sleeping rough in England London accounted for 27% of the total number of people sleeping rough in England. This is up from 24% of the England total in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 64% of rough sleeps UK nationals 64% were UK nationals, compared to 71% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 14% of rough sleepers are women 14% of the people recorded sleeping rough were women, the same as in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 6% were aged 25 years or under, compared to 8% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Thousands of families staying in temporary housing Almost 79,000 families were staying in temporary housing in the last three months of 2017 because they didn't have a permanent home, compared with 48,010 in the same period eight years before Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Reduction in families living in temporary housing before Coalition government There had been a significant reduction in families living in such conditions before the Coalition government came into power, with the number having fallen by 52 per cent between 2004 and 2010 under the Labour government AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Families staying in temporary has risen since But the figure has crept up in each of the past seven years, from 69,140 in the last quarter of 2015, to 75,740 in the same period in 2016 and 78,930 at the end of last year Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Nearly 58,000 families accepted as homeless (2018) Nearly 58,000 families have been accepted as homeless by their local council in the past year (as of March 2018), equating to an increase of 8 per cent over the last five years Getty

“It is getting more and more common and we are seeing a lot more people on the streets,” he told WalesOnline.

“We want to get it out before Christmas but it is just whether we can get through these repairs. But we are still looking for funding.”

The group, which is so informal it has not even coalesced into its own charity, is still fundraising to try and cover the costs of converting the bus.

They have launched a crowdfunding campaign online, which so far has collected donations of £1,000 towards its £8,000 target.

“The amount of help and support has been unbelievable; everybody has pulled together and now the bus is nearly finished,” Mr Smith wrote on the website.

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“We are asking if you could spare anything and I mean anything, even if it’s a pound – every single penny goes to the homeless, we do not take out any money whatsoever for ourselves. We put our own fuel in and pay for our own expenses so 100 per cent goes on the bus.”