It started as a Christmas appeal but homelessness doesn’t vanish with the New Year.

Donations continued to come into the Messenger throughout January, and at Gravesham Sanctuary the work goes on all year round to help those on the streets.

Steve Nolan, who runs the sanctuary with wife Lorna and manager Vicki Clarke, thanked everyone who took part.

“Loads of people have read the articles,” he said. “We’ve had great feedback and it’s made such a big difference.”

Nevertheless, homelessness remains a vast problem throughout the country, and a problem that Mr Nolan believes is being down-played at all levels of government.

Official council figures stated that there were nine people sleeping rough on the streets of Gravesend, but he said the true figure is likely to be far higher – with Sanctuary helping out 44 individuals in recent months.

“The problem’s more acute and we’ve had some real issues with some of our guests,” he said last week. “There’s some real sad stories out there.

“Some of those people might be with us for one night and some of those are regular – they’ve slept here every night we’ve been open. Some are in and out. We had one guy come in last night, he was in his 30s and his parents had kicked him out, and he had nowhere to go so he came here – it’s just as well we were open that night.

“What the government doesn’t count – the big unseen – is sofa surfing. For example, on average we’ll get 25 guests come in here every night. Maybe 10 or a dozen of those are just coming for a hot meal and a bit of community. A lot of them are sofa surging. The problem with sofa surfing is if you fall out with the person you’re sharing with, that’s it, you’re back on the streets again, and we see this time and again, it’s a vicious circle.

“Some of these people have got a jobs – they go out to work and they either sleep in their car or they sleep on the street or sleep on the sofa. They’ve got jobs but just can’t afford the rents. The rents are a nightmare.”

Meanwhile the problem is being replicated throughout the south east, and Mr Nolan said winter shelters throughout Kent were reporting higher rates of homeless than the official council figures.

“The big issue in the south east is the high rents,” he said. “That’s a really a big problem because the benefits that people get really don’t pay the rent.

“They keep banging on, saying we’ve got more affordable homes, but what’s affordable?

“All the affordable homes they build are not affordable. What you actually need is sustainable accommodation that people really can afford.”

Details on how to support Sanctuary, either by cheque, standing order or via the charity’s JustGiving page can be found at www.graveshamsanctuary.uk