The housing of many homeless people outside of the city needs to stop.

East Sussex County Council say they were first alerted about the "lack of support" given to residents at Kendal Court in Newhaven after seeing a report in this paper in 2018.

Today we report on residents at the same block. Residents still feel "abandoned" and away from their friends and family, miles from services which could help them get back on their feet.

We rang the warning bells three years ago, reporting on five deaths at the accommodation over two months. Campaigners claim the death toll is now in the late 20s.

How many more bodies will be found at the block until a permanent solution is put in place?

To matters worse, hundreds more city homeless housed outside of Brighton and Hove over the pandemic are now far away from their support networks and loved ones.

The MP for Eastbourne told Parliament that more than 130 of these people were put into the town's hotels – without the local council being told.

Were they getting the help they needed? Either way, three are now dead. Like the residents who lost their lives at Kendal Court, each one was a person whose death has deeply impacted someone, somewhere.

Brighton and Hove City Council is taking steps to fix the issue. Over the last few months, it opened the first council-owned and managed high-quality emergency accommodation block.

However, a simple fact remains; the scale of demand is too high for what the council can currently provide. Homelessness is a national issue and not everyone has a so-called "local connection".

The government must prioritise its efforts to give homeless people the best opportunity to bounce back. Our council must do so too.

We ended the financial year – at the end of March – with an underspend of almost £10 million. Perhaps we could help to bring our homeless closer to the support they need.

We are moving towards a better solution. But if we continue at this pace, there is no doubt that the death toll will climb even higher.