ROUGH sleeping across Britain is predicted to jump by three quarters over the next decade, a national charity for homeless people has warned.

About 9,100 people were sleeping rough in 2016, with the number forecast to rise to 16,000 in 2026, a new report from Crisis has suggested.

It comes as Brighton and Hove’s homeless charities joined forces this week to launch the Make Change Count campaign, urging people to donate to them rather than handing out cash to people in the street.

The most recent count carried out in November found 146 people sleeping rough in the city.

The analysis carried out for Crisis by Heriot-Watt University found that in 2016, 159,900 households estimated at almost a quarter of a million people (236,000) were experiencing a form of homelessness.

It warned that without action the most acute forms of homelessness were likely to keep climbing, with overall numbers forecast to rise by more than a quarter (26.5 per cent) over the next ten years to 202,200 in 2026.

The scale of homelessness had “increased significantly” (33 per cent) across Britain in the last five years, up from 119,900 in 2011.

Jon Sparkes, Crisis chief executive, said there was a need to “first understand the scale of the problem” as the charity marked its 50th anniversary.

The report, entitled Homelessness Projections: Core Homelessness In Great Britain, stated: “If current policies continue unchanged, the most acute forms of homelessness are likely to keep rising, with overall numbers estimated to rise by more than a quarter in the coming decade and two and a half times by 2041.”

It revealed that last year 68,300 households were sofa surfing, 19,300 households were living in unsuitable temporary accommodation and 37,200 households were living in hostels.

Some 26,000 households were living in other circumstances in 2016, including 8,900 households sleeping in tents, cars or on public transport, 12,100 households living in squats and 5,000 households in women’s refuges or winter night shelters, it said.

Households in unsuitable temporary accommodation were set to almost double, increasing 93 per cent to 37,300 by 2026, it added.

Mr Sparkes said: “We still exist because homelessness still exists and today’s report makes it only too clear that unless we take action as a society, the problem is only going to get worse with every year that passes.

“That means more people sleeping on our streets, in doorways or bus shelters, on the sofas of friends or family, or getting by in hostels and B&Bs. In order to tackle this, we need to first understand the scale of the problem.”

To donate to Brighton homeless services text UMCC17 and the amount to 70070.

Judith Blake, of the Local Government Association, said: “For families, rising homelessness is tragic. For councils housing homeless people, it is unsustainable.

“Councils need to be able to adapt the implementation of some welfare reforms to ensure there are housing options for people on low incomes.

“There is no substitute for a renaissance in council house building if we’re to truly address the rising homelessness we face as a nation. For that to happen, Government needs to allow councils to borrow to invest in genuinely affordable housing and to keep all of their receipts from Right to Buy sales so that money can be reinvested into delivering genuinely affordable homes.”