The number of homeless families in temporary accommodation is more than double the projected figure.

And the surge could lead to a £746,000 deficit for the council, 12 times worse than thought.

The figures come from a Dover District Council performance report. They have been seized on by shadow cabinet councillors, highlighting the Dover, Deal and Sandwich area’s share of the national housing crisis.

Cllr Bill Gardner, Labour shadow portfolio holder for housing, said: “It is worrying how many people are now affected by homelessness in the district.

“Dover District Council is spending a lot more on dealing with homelessness than was predicted. The introduction of Universal Credit is going to cause more problems for tenants too. The council is going to have to act quickly to reverse this worrying increase.”

The district council report said it has a target of just 50 households in temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast, for 2017/18. But it reached 104 in the first quarter and 109 in the second. The report, for the quarter ending September 30, says there is a £746,000 projected deficit when it was originally forecast at £61,000. It said: “This is a £685,000 adverse variance, mainly relating to the cost of increased temporary accommodation for the homeless (£775,000), due to the lack of suitable short-term accommodation and the increasing rise in homelessness.”

The figure for 2017/18 up to September was 153 households.

Cllr Peter Wallace, Labour’s shadow portfolio holder for performance, said: “Over the past year I’ve been involved in cases where families have been made homeless due to long-term illness, redundancies and changes to benefits. Families are often desperate and low on money, yet they may be moved into a B&B in Folkestone or Ashford, having to spend money they can’t afford on bus fares or petrol.

“Universal Credit will only make this situation worse as private landlords refuse to take tenants on benefits. Long-term we need to see the council investing more in affordable house building, so people have a place to stay permanently within the district.”

Cllr Wallace said that Dover’s night shelter, Emmaus, Porchlight and the council’s housing team were doing an” amazing job.”

But, he added: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. The true amount of people living homeless in the district is much higher as many people are sleeping on the streets, not coming forward to the council or miss the criteria to receive any help and consequently aren’t recorded.”

One of Dover’s most familiar representatives of the homeless community is Colin Davey who sells The Big Issue outside Boots.

He was without a proper place to live for many years. He said: “The council needs to spend more money on prevention. It’s more expensive to help people afterwards and by then the damage has been done.”