REF: 28439 A homeless drug addict who shoplifts to fund his £100-a-day drug habit has said he wants to break free from his addiction in 2004.

But 38-year-old Andy, who has been hooked on heroin for years and has spent most of his life in and out of prison, said not enough was being done to help people like him off the streets.

A survey carried out by Swindon homelessness organisations last year found that 60 people were sleeping rough in the town.

Organisers of the Christmas Care shelter, which puts up homeless people every year, say providing more permanent beds for rough sleepers could cut crime in the town.

Having stayed in the shelter for the festive period, Andy has returned to sleeping in a car his resting place for the past two-and-a-half months.

"I'm nearly 40 and I've had enough of this lifestyle but I don't know any way out of it," he said.

The temporary shelter, which has been set up every Christmas for the past 15 years at the Methodist Church Hall in Queen's Drive, Park North, opened on Christmas Eve and closed on Sunday.

Staffed by volunteers and funded by donations, it put up about 30 people for four nights. But the rough sleepers who enjoyed hot meals and a warm place to stay are now back on the streets.

One of the shelter's committee members, Les Jones, said that the only way of tackling the problems of long-term homeless people, who often had drink or drug problems, was to make a similar drop-in shelter available all year around.

Ms Jones said: "A lot more needs to be done. There's a hardcore of people who seem to be totally excluded. They get a reputation and it follows them around. There needs to be a big council-funded shelter to get them off the streets and give them a stepping stone.

"It would also stop a lot of street robbery. People are nicking to feed a habit.

"A lot of crime is caused by drugs and if we had more facilities and more support for homeless people we would start to cut crime."

Earlier this year Swindon solicitor Rob Ross said the majority of the 1,000 home burglaries and 200 street robberies committed a year in the town were carried out to feed drug addiction.

The two direct access shelters currently available to homeless people in Swindon are Culvery Court in Harding Street, a 20-bed hostel that provides short-term accommodation, and Davies House in Turl Street.

But they are often full and not designed to cope with people with serious drink or drugs problems, who have nowhere else to go.

Alan Smith, 36, has been sleeping rough in Swindon since being released from prison in September.

He lives with four others in what he describes as a shanty town made from plastic pallets and builders' sheets.

"It's not nice," said Mr Smith. "It's so cold it's not really possible to sleep without getting drunk, and you wake up every couple of hours shivering."

For him a weekly soup run is a lifeline and the Christmas Care shelter made a great difference.

"This Christmas break has been fantastic," said Mr Smith.

"I came here in an awful state, dirty, grubby and cold. I want a place to live in and I want to start working and give up drinking."

Gary Stenning, office manager of Culvery Court, said there was a need for more beds in Swindon.

"We had to turn people away on almost 800 occasions in the year up to March 2003 because there were no spare beds available," he said.

Nick Kemmett, senior homelessness caseworker for Swindon Council, said that it was much more difficult to reach and provide accommodation to long-term rough sleepers.

He said that an all-year shelter would be a great idea but added finding funding would be a matter for councillors.

Coun Andy Albinson (Con, Dorcan), lead member for housing, said: "Whatever we do isn't going to be enough but we can't bang all our money into the homelessness problem. We are doing what we can."

Andy Tate