A HOMELESS couple are camping outside Rayleigh Library while they wait for a new roof over their heads.

Paul and Elizabeth Exley, along with their springer spaniel, Patch, and Tiger the cat, have been sleeping rough in the town’s High Street since Saturday.

The unemployed couple say they have been abandoned by Thurrock Council, after being evicted from their home in Purfleet, because the authority deemed them to have deliberately made themselves homeless.

They have now thrown themselves on the mercy of Essex County Council’s social services team.

Mrs Exley, 43, said: “We have nowhere else to go.

“We’ve got all our worldly possessions here because there’s simply nothing else to do with them. I’m worried sick.”

Mr and Mrs Exley lived in a privately-rented house in Thamley, Purfleet, for a year before running into problems with their landlord in May.

After they were evicted, Thurrock Council agreed to pay for temporary accommodation at a bed-and-breakfast in Stifford Clays, Grays, for a month, while it investigated the case.

However, last month, the authority ruled the dispute with the landlord had been the couple’s fault and cut their funding.

Mr and Mrs Exley were evicted from the bed-and-breakfast on Friday and spent Saturday unsuccessfully trying to rent a caravan in Thorney Bay Park, Canvey. The couple spent Saturday and Sunday nights sleeping in the reception of Rayleigh police station.

Mrs Exley said: “My husband gets very depressed and I’m not surprised. He shouldn’t be living on the streets at 50. Unless someone can help, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”