Homeless people are being forced to sleep in stairwells and on Sutton’s streets because there are too few places for them to find refuge, volunteers have warned.

Sutton Nightwatch, a not-for-profit group that helps the borough’s rough sleepers, is pushing for empty buildings to be freed up to take people off the streets.

It comes after police were called in amid rising tensions between families and people sleeping in stairwells and corridors of their flats.

Residents of Ambleside Gardens and Sherborne Court in Cavendish Road, Sutton, complained of anti-social behaviour in June.

Nouri Enhari, 61, of Sherborne Court, said: “They are sleeping in the corridors and people are chasing the issue by putting up signs inside saying, ‘don’t sleep here’ and they have been doing it for years.

“They force the door open and get inside at about 12am or 1am without any real problems and most of them either come into Ambleside, Sherborne, or basically this area.

“It’s the same five to six people who hang around outside of Sutton train station who are in their late teens, or early 20s.

“They look like they could be 19, or 20 and they are always wasted on drugs.”

In February Croydon County Court issued an injunction against two men, aged 40 and 48 who police say are known for anti-social behaviour, forbidding them from entering the area within the boundary of Brighton Road, Cavendish Road, Cedar Road and Langley Park Road until February 2017.

Dean Killock, one of the founders of Sutton Nightwatch, which is in the process of applying for charity status, said rough sleepers had little choice of where to go – despite buildings lying empty.

He said: “If you had a choice between sleeping at a bus stop, a large shed, or sleeping in a stairwell where it is warm and dry, what would you choose?

“But there are so many buildings that are not in use in Sutton that we could use to help people.

“If we were given the keys for a couple of buildings to take over, I can guarantee we would have them up and running and used as a place where people who are homeless can apply their skills.

“People who are homeless are not asking for money, they are asking to be part of the community, but because they have no home address they can’t claim benefits and they can’t get a job and that’s why we would like a space to give them those opportunities.”

Sutton Council spent £266,000 on housing people in bed-and-breakfast accommodation in 2015/16 amid a 20 per cent increase in homelessness.

Some 411 families in Sutton were classed as homeless as of March this year, up from 280 at the same point in 2015.

Should empty buildings in Sutton be opened up to homeless people? Post a comment below or email letters@suttonguardian.co.uk to tell us your views