A young homeless woman was filmed being helped out of a bin she had been sleeping in just moments before it was due to be emptied into a lorry.
Bin men found the woman hiding under rubbish that she had covered herself in to keep out the cold.
The video shows her gathering her belongings in a single JD Sports carrier bag as one of the workers tells her: Its dangerous in there, its very dangerous in there, come on we need the bin please…
The video, filmed on December 22 in Brixton, South London, was posted anonymously to Facebook with the caption: More and more rough sleepers on our streets are living in bins, I will repeat what I said “living in bins”, with over half being young women as many feel safer living in a bin.
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The person who uploaded the clip said the woman was young and that she was given a meal after being found but that overstretched outreach workers were unable to get to her straight away.
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Nobody deserves to live like this. This is a young woman with so much to live for, the person wrote.
The clip comes as new figures revealed more than 170,000 families and individiuals are experiencing the worst forms of homelessness.
The number of people sleeping rough in their cars, in tents and in unsuitable temporary accommodation has doubled in five years, homeless charity Crisis found.
It said for every one person sleeping rough on the street, there is another living in a car or a tent.
Lambeth Council thanked the workmen from Veolia for ensuring the vulnerable woman came to no harm.
A spokesman added: If they had not been so vigilant she may have been seriously injured.
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Following this incident the crews have been given updated guidelines on how to report rough sleepers and encouraged to be extra vigilant in case of a repeat occurrence.
The councils outreach teams and the police have been searching for this woman to ensure her welfare, and emergency accommodation has been arranged.
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Lambeth Council is doing a huge amount of work to help vulnerable people who are under threat of homelessness or who find themselves facing life on the streets.
We have this month opened a new hostel in Vauxhall which will help dozens of rough sleepers off the streets of Lambeth and into safe, independent living.
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