Angry residents say they keep finding rough sleepers in their Northern Quarter apartment block - due to its 'reputation'

A Northern Quarter apartment block is being ‘treated like a hostel after it ‘got a reputation’ within the homeless community as being an easy place to access, a resident says.

Ian Roberts says that, due to a door ‘degrading’ over time on the 125-127 Oldham Street apartment building, it’s become easy for non-residents to gain entry. That has led to a surge in rough sleeping inside the block.

Ian says he’s even discovered rough sleepers in water meter rooms and the basement, with one homeless man reportedly saying he was there to ‘charge his phone’. Riverside, the company which manages the block, said it is ‘aware’ of an issue with the door.

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In the interim, Ian says that there’s nothing stopping rough sleepers ‘treating the building like a hostel’. He added: “It's the same door that has been there since the late 1990s.

“The connecting door broke and we were without a front door, really. The magnet they have fitted keeps falling out. I'm on the 3rd floor, and I find rough sleepers on my floor now. They use the water meter room, the door is open. It's warm.”

That means the building has a ‘reputation’, Ian continued. He went on: “I opened my front door on Saturday morning to a lad who refused to leave.

“It feels like a recipe for disaster. [Rough sleepers] are interested in the basement. They are treating it like a hostel.

“I have sympathy for them, but it's obvious the building's got a reputation in that community as 'we can go in at 3am'. One of them told me he came in to charge his phone.”

He says he’s tried to raise it with Riverside before. He explained: “ Me and two other residents have made it clear six or