Love and Drugs on the Street: Girls Sleeping Rough

Filmed in Brighton and Hove, which has seen the UK’s biggest increase in homelessness over the past year, we meet Paige, who is 21 and sleeps in a graveyard; Tanya, who is 7 months pregnant and sleeps rough with her partner; and Jo-Jo, who is 21, smoking spice and sleeping in shop doorways.

The eye-opening daily life story of women sleeping rough on Brighton’s streets continues. Paige has had a fresh start in a hostel but her daughter is being put up for adoption, while Maria has succumbed to the grip of heroin addiction, having had two children removed from her care. With around three-quarters of mothers sleeping on the streets having had kids taken away, can they break the vicious cycle?

The weather is changing and for the girls sleeping rough in Brighton, relationships are getting strained. In Brighton autumn is coming, and with it comes tough choices. Paige is facing life on her own, while Maria and Tony are arguing and sharing their shop door entrance with Arna. More than half of the women sleeping rough having been threatened with violence in the last year* and no one wants to be on their own on the street.