Postmen see them daily as they walk their morning rounds. Window cleaners and shopkeepers wake them as they open up before the shoppers descend. Sikhs and Christians feed them breakfast and dinner.

It seems the only people who cannot see Hounslow's rough sleepers are the councillors and officers at the Civic Centre because, officially, there are just three 'street homeless' in the entire borough.

This trio of tramps must be incredibly messy, managing to fill car parks, children's playhouses in parks and shop doorways with cans, cardboard and fag butts at an impressive rate.

One could be Pat, who usually sleeps in the deep doorway of Howard Scott shoes in Hounslow High Street and is well known to the ladies who work there, who often bring him a morning cup of tea.

Another is the Polish man I meet striding through the Asda car park on his way to nowhere, but freezing after another night outside.

So Patrick Rowan must be Hounslow's third rough sleeper, a 54-year-old ex-forklift driver with a drink problem who has bedded down in a shed every night since August.

He and his next-door neighbour, also a shed-dweller, the Latvians featured in last week's feature, and the men who filll park benches in the town centre, are among many who get their only shower at Feed the Hungry Heart in Pears Road on a Thursday but are invisible on any system.

"I am one of the lucky ones - this is the Park Lane of homelessness," Patrick says, perched on the camp bed that takes up most of his hut.

Having seen some of the popular spots to sleep, all within a square mile of the Chronicle's offices in Staines Road, I would have to agree.

His tiny home has a gas stove, a bed and the walls are covered in carpet to keep the cold out. He even managed to get his Christmas cards delivered to him in December by a friendly postman.

The less fortunate grab space where they can and guard it well.

Prime locations are known to all - a ramp under a newly-built car park, an out-of-the-way alley in Hounslow West, a doorway that is deep and hidden, stairwells, bin stacks. There are no council hostel places in Hounslow, just a six-bed, privately-run facility with a long waiting list.

If you can scrape together £13.80, you get a week on warm buses that run most of the night, but Patrick knows of several deaths on the streets in recent weeks, the cold snap claiming victims who never woke up.

Most days he catches the bus or walks all the way to Richmond where RB Mind offers a drop-in centre where he can shower, wash his clothes, and importantly, blow-dry his hair. "But I have to go out of my borough to get anything like that on a regular basis," he says. "You can't turn up to a job interview or to look at a flat with smelly clothes and dirty fingernails.

"It's like the council can't accept that they have a homeless problem. There are Eastern Europeans sleeping in Lampton Park at the moment, right next to the Civic Centre, and I'd say there are probably around 60 homeless altogether.

"You go to any car park in Hounslow at night and you'll find a homeless person.

"I find the council's idea that there are only three homeless people here completely bizarre. I could show them ten within a few minutes of walking around the town centre."

The last time council off icials counted was 2006, when teams were sent out to target known 'hotspots', like parks and the Chiswick flyover, and found just three rough sleepers. Since then a spokeswoman said there have been no new referrals from Street Rescue or other voluntary agencies and 'no indication that numbers of rough sleepers are increasing'.

For Patrick the use of referrals and a two-year-old count suggest officials are unwilling to face up to the large - and growing - number of rough sleepers in the borough.

He cannot get referred himself because of complications with a previous tenancy and also wonders why figures from the Jobcentre, where many enter No Fixed Abode as their address, do not count towards statistics.

The Number 10 project is primarily a centre for people with mental health issues but is frequented by many homeless men and women.

The discrepancy in numbers has become such a cause for concern for Clive Casey, a volunteer mental health advocate, that he has started a survey of rough sleepers and is now in talks with the council.

During just one Homeless Assessment Event 18 people registered themselves as sleeping rough in Hounslow.

Most of the long-term British-born homeless in Hounslow have a drink or drugs problem, making it difficult to keep to appointments for house views or jobs.

"You have to kill the pain," says Patrick. "Most of the day you're just killing time, waiting to go to bed. Every homeless person has a different problem, but it's impossible to sort it out on the streets.

"All of these new developments - the Blenheim Centre in Hounslow, in Brentford and in Feltham - and not one homeless person housed. Why not turn a few units over to a facility for people to sort themselves out?"

Lucy Proctor is raising money for housing and homelessness charity Shelter by running the Bath Half Marathon on March 15. To sponsor her and help Shelter support people like Patrick go to  www.justgiving.com/lucyhomelessrun

To donate furniture, time or money to Feed the Hungry Heart email  feedthehungryheart@mail.com or call the church landline on 02085695359 or Nico on 07767626247.

Mission in Hounslow Trust runs the Olive Branch drop in centre based at the Salvation Army Church, Inwood Road, Hounslow, where they have shower, hairwashing and shaving facilities, hot dinnners, advice and companionship. See www.hounslowmission.org.uk  and go to the homeless and also drop in centre sections for further details.

Homeless in Hounslow 1: The Eastern European workers