"MY mum and dad got divorced and I was constantly in the middle of arguments.

"I didn't get on with my mum's boyfriend. I was being bullied at school and coming home to face all that. I couldn't cope and got heavily into drugs. Then I left home. I'd probably be dead by now if I hadn't found the support I got in Warrington."

18-year-old Peter McNulty is one of almost 1,000 young homeless people every year who receive support and advice from Warrington Action for Homeless.

Everyone who passes through the doors of the charity's Bridge Street drop-in centre has a story to tell - and most are aged between 16 and 25.

Gone are the days when homelessness was associated with 'men of the road' sleeping in shop doorways. Today in Warrington, support workers tackle a complex variety of issues affecting young people, from family breakdown to mental health problems and substance abuse.

Homelessness may be a less visible problem here than in Manchester and Liverpool, but there are scores of young people on our doorstep who do not have anywhere they can truly call home.

For Peter, who left home at 16 and spent two weeks sleeping rough, there was no one cause of his homelessness. Problems at home had led him to seek refuge in a haze of drug abuse, which in turn distorted his behaviour to the point where he could not maintain any kind of normal life.

Now, after two years as a resident in the charity's Park Lodge Hostel on Wilderspool Causeway, Peter is on a YTS training scheme and is almost ready to move into a place of his own.

Most days, he can be found helping out at the Bridge Street centre alongside Resettlement Worker Theresa Mills, who Peter describes as a kind of surrogate mum!

Said Theresa: "Most people go through periods of instability of one kind or another when they're in their teens but they have stable homes and families to support them, so as they mature they sort themselves out. The people who come here don't have that - and that's where we come in."

Since its launch in 1982, Warrington Action for Homeless has provided help, advice and a range of hostel accommodation with 24 hour support from staff and volunteers.

From December 1 to March 31, the charity's Winter Watch shelter opens, offering hot food, a safe, warm place to sleep, access to medical services, support and companionship for between 10 and 15 people every night.

The charity is also planning to set up a mobile 'drugs bus' to provide support and health advice, as well as a needle exchange service.

But many more volunteers, funds and provisions are needed to allow the charity to tackle the full extent of the problem.

Project manager John Hughes said: "Homelessness is very much an invisible problem. Though many of the young people we deal with will have experienced short periods of sleeping rough, most of them will have been sleeping on friends' floors or living in unstable tenancies.

"Tackling homelessness is therefore not just about putting a roof over someone's head. At the night shelter, we deal with many people who have become chronically used to an unstable lifestyle. We need to provide support, security and life skills to help them stabilise their lives."

Anyone wishing to volunteer their help or donate provisions should contact Sue Blyth on 632771 or 411115.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.