A new charity is providing a fast-track route for homeless people to work in the hospitality industry.
Only A Pavement Away works with a number of homeless charities – including Crisis – to link homeless people with companies who can offer work to help them rebuild their lives.
The charity says the project provides a win-win solution by employing a homeless person and easing what it describes as a recruitment crisis in the hospitality sector.
Its founder, Greg Mangham, told Sky News the idea provides a smoother route to employment for those who've fallen on hard times.
He said: "When they go to the interview the person who is interviewing them knows they've been homeless.
"So there's never the difficult conversation of 'oh my god, what do I ask them?' 'Are they going to turn up in a sleeping bag?' 'Are they going to come to work having slept in the doorway?'
"And they also know that the homeless charity and associations have a structure that protects these people.
"If they have a problem then the employer just rings the charity or association and they'll get a support worker in there."
The charity, set up in April 2018, aims to have up to 500 homeless people in jobs by the end of the year.
Seven months ago Kevin Watson was homeless in London.
He spent a month living in his car over Christmas after his home life broke down and he turned to alcohol.
"I hit the bottle bad…I was drinking a litre of vodka a day," he said.
Despite losing everything, he now has accommodation and a job at a pub in London.
He says the opportunity has helped turn his life around.
"[It's] 100% better than how I was feeling at the time sleeping in the car. You wake up, you think 'what am i going to do today?' but there's nothing there. They've [the charity] helped a lot – I was amazed they helped so quickly."
As well as homeless people Only A Pavement Away wants to help ex-offenders and former military personal gain employment.
It is working with a number of hospitality companies, including Young's Pubs, to provide the jobs.
Recruitment manager at Young's Abi Dunlop says taking people who've been homeless can, in some cases, provide a better employee.
"I think the positive of coming through this channel is that we do know their background and it's being very honest," she said.
"The charities we work through make sure that they are work ready so actually it can be potentially more reliable than someone where we don't know their background just through an interview," she added.
Last month, the government announced a £100m plan to halve rough sleeping in England by 2022 and eradicate it completely by 2027.
Figures show there are currently around 4,700 rough sleepers – but research shows the figure is far higher for those who are without a stable place to live but who are in work.
More from Homelessness
Homeless charity Shelter says there are 33,000 families in England who are in work but have nowhere long-term to live – a 73% increase over the last five years, according to the charity.
Charities blame the rise in so-called "working homeless" on increasingly high private rents and a lack of social housing.
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