HOMELESS people and those supporting them should be among the first groups to receive the coronavirus vaccine, a charity boss has argued.

Brighton Housing Trust chief executive Andy Winter has written to MPs Caroline Lucas, Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle asking them to urge Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi MP to include homeless people in the priority groups for those to receive the Covid vaccine.

Mr Winter also wants to include the frontline workers supporting rough sleepers within these priority groups.

The Argus: Brighton Housing Trust chief executive Andy WinterBrighton Housing Trust chief executive Andy Winter

His letter reads: "People with a history of homelessness are old before their time.

"They have levels of frailty – including unintentional weight loss, feelings of exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed and low levels of physical activity – comparable to 89-year-olds in the general population.

"Those with no home have an average of seven long-term health conditions, far higher than people in their 90s.

“People with no home die young. The mean age at death of homeless men is 46 years and just 43 years for homeless women as compared to the general population mean age of 76 years for men and 81 years for women.

“Just as residents of care homes are at higher clinical risk of severe disease, so are those who use single homeless hostels and other shared homeless accommodation for rough sleepers.

“Correspondingly, frontline homelessness support workers are at increased personal risk of exposure to infection with Covid-19 and of transmitting that infection to susceptible and vulnerable people in shared homelessness accommodation.”

The Argus: Mr Winter has written to Caroline Lucas, Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle to ask for homeless people to be placed in priority groups to receive the Covid-19 vaccinesMr Winter has written to Caroline Lucas, Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle to ask for homeless people to be placed in priority groups to receive the Covid-19 vaccines

Brighton Housing Trust's First Base Day Centre has provided support to homeless people in the city throughout the pandemic, seeing between eight and 12 new rough sleepers each week.

The charity has also provided accommodation for 222 people who would otherwise be homeless.

They are currently staying in 26 different properties.