A journalist has revealed her “shock” at a lack of change after following up a probe into homeless families that her newspaper first investigated four years ago.

Sophie Halle-Richards has revealed the “squalid and dehumanising conditions” being faced by families in a special report for the Manchester Evening News.

The MEN first looked into the issue in 2018 in its ‘Hidden Homeless’ investigation that won praise from United Nations special rapporteur Professor Philip Alston.

Sophie’s fresh probe featured testimony from the mother of two young children who had been housed in seven different properties over a period of three months, including a period where they had to share accommodation with sex offenders, criminals and alcoholics.

Sophie, pictured, told HTFP: “In 2018, the MEN conducted an investigation which revealed the squalid and dehumanising conditions families presenting as homeless were being subjected to.

“We were shocked to find that four years later, families like the one we spoke to in this investigation were still being placed in B&Bs – with no cooking facilities and having to co-exist with extremely vulnerable adults.

“One mum-of-two, who had been made homeless along with her young sons, one who is autistic, were forced to live next door to an alcoholic and reside under the same roof as a sex offender and other criminals. They also claim the property had a rat infestation.

“She was passed around six different emergency properties before finally being given a temporary house. Like thousands of others, she is now on a huge list for social housing.

“Local charities warned us that the cost of living crisis, coupled with huge rent hikes in Manchester, mean people are presenting as homeless that never would have previously.

“With a deficit of social housing in the city, families like the one we spoke to – who don’t have family to stay with and have been priced out of the rental sector, have no choice but to accept inadequate conditions in B&Bs and temporary accommodation.

“Since the investigation was published, we’ve been contacted by a number of homeless people in the city describing similar conditions, with one man currently stuck inside a B&B telling us: ‘I’m living, not surviving.'”