Sleeping rough in Kent

by Nisha Chopra

Kent is facing a homeless crisis - with one charity seeing a shocking 40 per cent rise in just one year.

Porchlight, which offers accommodation to rough sleepers and those at risk of homelessness, said in the last 12 months it had seen nearly double the amount of people needing its services.

Porchlight's chief executive Mike Barrett said: "We're stunned by the number of people calling the helpline, we get people in crisis or facing repossession and it's continuous. It is quite scary."

Its latest figures show 2,284 people reaching out to the charity for housing help in the year 2010-2011, that's an increase of 652 - or 40 per cent - on the year before.

The charity, based in Canterbury, said the proposed changes to housing benefit and the introduction to the localism bill - passing down more services from government to local councils - is putting even more pressure on people struggling to cope.

Mr Barrett said: "There are more families under enormous pressure in terms of debts, it's not uncommon for families to split because of that and then various members of that family becoming homeless."

He warned this could lead to an increase in sofa surfing.

He added: "People who haven't got a home who are spending a night here or there with friends or family, but eventually they end up on the street."