SerpApi.Org
In the shadow of Manchester Piccadilly station, a sprawl of tents occupies a patch of decaying grass.
Among those living on the streets of Manchester is Mitica Titianu, 56, who has spent a year and a half sleeping rough in the northern city. It is a grim existence with little hope.
“For me, life is very bad,” he told The Telegraph. “There is no support.”
A day earlier, Andy Burnham, on his first day as prime minister, had vowed to end rough sleeping in the UK. The ambitious pledge echoed a promise he made before he became mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017 to end rough sleeping by 2020.
In Cobourg Street, Mr Titianu said he had had “no help” from local authorities, and his only interaction with officials was frequent evacuations from the spot where he is pitched up.
The Romanian national, who came to the UK 10 years ago and previously worked installing insulation in Luton, added: “The Home Office say ‘go away’, the council say ‘go away’.”
When Mr Burnham announced his flagship A Bed Every Night scheme in 2017, there were 268 people sleeping rough in Greater Manchester.
The numbers fell to 89 by 2021 and were kept artificially low by Covid lockdown initiatives, such as Everyone In, but have since risen in each of the past four years to 197 in 2025.
With the so-called King of the North having missed his target for Manchester, charities, businesses and his allies have warned that he could be setting himself up for failure once more.
Neil Cornthwaite, partnerships manager at Barnabus, a Christian homelessness charity in Manchester, said the city had been at “crisis point” when Mr Burnham made his pledge.
The A Bed Every Night scheme, Mr Cornthwaite said, started off strong: “There was more capacity, beds available, we saw the benefit of that, which is why the numbers did drop before Covid.”
However, he said: “I think he would admit himself, candidly, that he bit off more than he could chew with that statement. Within about 18 months of us all meeting with him, he realised it was more complicated than just getting people off the streets.”
Mr Cornthwaite said the increase since Covid had been driven by a range of external factors such as the cost of living crisis, lack of housing, the moratorium on the ban on no-fault evictions, rising mental health issues, removal of the right to remain and the war in Ukraine.
It was not only the homeless who suffered from the lack of lasting change, Mr Cornthwaite said: local businesses were left without the necessary support for helping rough sleepers on their doorsteps.
Ben Blomeley, 34, duty manager at a bus station near a multi-storey car park where people sleep rough, said the complex was inundated with homeless people. He said they were “pushed out” of other spaces by police, without any thought as to where they may go next.
Monica Komar, who works at a shop in the station, said the presence of violent rough sleepers put off customers. She said: “We have violence, we get spats. They come in and shoplift. It’s a nightmare.”
Back on Cobourg Street, Mr Titianu said his fellow rough sleepers made for difficult neighbours. He said: “They drink, they have sex and fight – every night is a scandal. I get no sleep.” He added: “My interest is work.”
He said he wanted to work, but claimed illegal migrants “get hotels” and enjoy a “good life” while those who had worked in England before “get no support”.
Dr Zahid Chauhan, the former mayor of Oldham, worked closely with Mr Burnham during his time in office and was awarded an OBE for his services to the homeless. He said those sleeping rough in Manchester were too often falling through the cracks.
“Once you lose the address, it becomes almost impossible to get help anywhere,” he said, citing difficulties registering at GP surgeries or for benefits, and finding work.
Dr Chauhan praised the A Bed Every Night scheme for offering rough sleepers a lifeline, improving data sharing and advancing access to services.
But he said more needed to be done to tackle the causes of rough sleeping, and asked: “Where do you go when the whole of society is pushing you back?”
Dr Chauhan said that, while Mr Burnham had not ended rough sleeping in Manchester, he had nevertheless driven a nationwide conversation about homelessness.
He said: “Is the success that we never have rough sleeping or homelessness? No, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
“The success of how many more people we can get off and prevent getting on to the streets ... it is changing the mindset. [Mr Burnham] is very passionate about it, he will go to any length, he will give his time.”
Tim Heatley is the chairman of Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity and co-founder of The Embassy, a community and charity set up to help homeless men rebuild their lives.
He said he had noticed that Manchester was not short of good programmes for rough sleeping, but lacked the constitution to support the efforts. He said: “There is signposting, drop-in centres and soup kitchens, but the biggest challenge is building somewhere.”
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Mr Heatley added that Manchester had become a victim of its own success. He said: “Once the word was out that if you come to Manchester you’ll get support, people from other parts of the UK started arriving in Manchester.”
Nevertheless, he said some 8,000 people had gone through the A Bed Every Night Scheme, of whom 6,000 had now gone on to permanent accommodation.
“There are 600 people every night now in that accommodation,” he said, adding: “It is really encouraging. But at a national level it will need everyone pulling in the same direction.”
