Figures out today show the number of homeless people dying in the county has doubled in five years.

The shocking figures show the number of homeless people who died in the county in 2013 has risen from 10 to 20.

According to the Office for National Statistics 20 rough sleepers passed away in the county in 2017.

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In 2016 across the county, 14 homeless people died and in 2015 there were 17 recorded deaths.

In 2014 there were 13 such deaths.

In Medway last year alone there were six recorded homeless deaths, the year before that, there were three, including Michael McCluskey, 43, who was found by a passer-by, tucked up in his sleeping bag near Poundland and the Central Theatre on a cold Christmas Eve in Chatham High Street.

Mr McCuckey was a dad, grandad and football fan who had battled drug addiction for more than 10 years.

He had died from a heroin overdose.

Another homeless man also died a few days later in Solomons Road, Chatham.

The man, known locally as Greg, had been sleeping rough with a group of three friends near the entrance to a car park.

In Medway the new rough sleepers initiative is helping people who are living on the streets.

in 2017 there were seven such deaths in Canterbury and the city is the fifth worst in the country for homeless deaths per 100,000 people, according to the figures.

In August 2018, Canterbury charity, Catching Lives revealed new alarming figures which revealed a worrying trend in the growing number of deaths among those who are or have been homeless.

In just seven months the charity recorded seven fatalities among clients or former clients.

Last year in other parts of the county, two homeless people died in the Ashford area, one died in Dartford, another in Maidstone and one in the Folkestone and Hythe area.

Two homeless people died in the Tunbridge Wells area in 2017.

Last year (2018) two homeless people died in Maidstone, those were Neil Martin and Dermot Mulligan.

And in the news today, one mum Irina Zureiqi has let a homeless man move in with her after fearing he would have died in freezing conditions in a town centre.

Darren Handley had been sleeping outside the former Mecca Bingo building in Ashford for almost two years after battling mental illness and alcohol addiction for most of his life.

In Medway one charity says the rough sleepers initiative is probably the most proactive in the country for helping homeless people, thus hopefully not as many deaths will occur in the Towns.

Liz Shaw from One Big Family, said: "Medway is probably one of the areas within the country that is doing the most proactive work for the homeless.

"The new Medway rough sleepers initiative is having some major outcomes, so hopefully, that figure will not be repeated."