Homeless people are being trained as journalists so they can help run a news agency.

Charity Action Homeless has joined forces with the community news organisation Citizen's Eye to launch the Down not Out scheme.

The project has received a £140,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund which will go towards training for men and women with a history of sleeping rough to be citizen journalists.

The training will equip them with all the skills needed to report on life as they see it – and organisers hope it will challenge people's perceptions of homeless people.

Anthony, 39, who has been homeless for a year, is editor of the Action Homeless newsletter Upwards and Onwards.

"Hopefully Down not Out will give us the chance to educate people about some of the other issues affecting us, not just addiction," he said.

"The situation is changing, the reasons for homelessness are not going to be about drink, drugs, relationship problems – it's going to be about money.

"There are going to be a lot of people who will find themselves homeless because they can't afford to keep up rent, or mortgage repayments – these are people who never would have had the problem five years ago.

"The most important thing we can do is write about what we know and give advice and information for people with serious housing issues."

The project aims to train 100 community reporters over two years – 50 each year – with the first members of the news team being recruited in about a month's time.

They will take part in an initial 10-week training course Phoenix Square and also at the central library and the Leicester Mercury.

Among those who will take part is 53-year-old former army corporal Richard Clarke, known as The Captain.

He has been living on the streets for three years following a relationship breakdown.

"People have got no idea what it means to be homeless," he said. "They seem to think we're all in this situation because of drink or drugs.

"I was on the sleeping street for 18 months, and I saw things going on with drink and drugs, of course, but it doesn't mean we're all like that – it's a popular misconception."

Action Homeless hope to get the news agency up and running by the beginning of Poverty and Homelessness Week on January 28, 2012.

The group's stories and reports will be featured in a new Down not Out website, a printed magazine and an online blog.

Citizen's Eye editor John Coster said: "I want it to challenge people's perceptions of what it's like to be homeless.

"The most important thing is the service users, they have the opportunity to be judged on who they are rather than their circumstances.

"The scheme will include a number of paid positions at the editor and sub-editor levels."