A RHYL fundraiser said he was “angry” to be told that two homeless people based at a tent on the town’s promenade could not be found.

Earlier this month, on August 12, a witness told the Journal that “three or four tents” were seen pitched up by the Rhyl War Memorial Garden.

Richard Kendrick, who does much to raise money to support those who are experiencing or at risk of homeless, reported the two people to StreetLink, an organisation which alerts outreach teams about people sleeping rough.

Despite this, he received a reply saying they could not be located.

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Another ‘homeless campsite’ spotted by Rhyl’s seafront as tents set up

A response from StreetLink on August 26 read: “We work closely with local outreach teams, and on this occasion, we were unable to find the person sleeping rough.”

Local authorities have an obligation to provide temporary accommodation to those they believe may be homeless, eligible for accommodation, and in “priority need”.

Richard said: “I told them there was a man and a woman there, with a dog, and them the gave postcode of the Remembrance Gardens. They can’t miss them.

“I’ve spoken to them loads of times, and have seen them on Rhyl High Street loads of times.

“I expected to get a reply saying they’d been to see them and checked them out. This is the second time they’ve not found someone.

“These people are not hiding; they’re easy to find. They’re there almost all the time.

“(If they found the tents but not the people) they should go back every three or four hours to make sure (if anyone is there or not) - even just to make sure they’re still alive, and that nothing’s happened to them.”

In response, a Denbighshire County Council spokesperson said: “The council has been made aware of the people in tents located on the promenade in Rhyl, and currently have a team that are working with the occupiers to support them further.”

Tents were found set up in similar locations in Rhyl in July, while in March, a similar “homeless campsite” was set up in the area, which was said to have been “growing for the last couple of weeks”.

A freedom of information request in May revealed that the council spent the entirety of the £7,356,535.02 it received from Welsh Government’s Housing Support Grant in the 2023-24 period.

This included more than £1.5m spent on temporary supported accommodation and in excess of £3m on “floating support”.