UK homeless families could reach 100,000 by 2020.

The number of homeless households could reach 100,000 by 2020 according to a report published by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and councils across the country are struggling to cope.

The main problem is finding stable housing for the rising number of homeless families. There are currently 78,000 households living in temporary accommodation and if current trends continue there could be 100,000 by 2020.

Out of the councils surveyed 70% said they were struggling to find social housing for homeless people, 89% said they were also having difficulty finding affordable rental properties in the private sector.

Rising levels of homelessness are no longer just an issue in London, the problem, the report shows, is growing elsewhere in the country.

In the capital 40% of councils reported more people seeking support in the past year, the biggest rises have been in the Midlands (76%), the South (70%) and the North (62%).

The rise in people asking for help from local authorities can, the report says, be attributed to several factors. These include reforms to Housing Benefit under Universal Credit and the riding number of people being evicted from privately rented accommodation.

The Homelessness Monitor 2018 based on work carried out by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick of Heriot Watt University's Institute for Social Policy and Equalities Research using statistical data and in-depth interviews to produce its findings.

The report's authors hold out some hope that the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act will help to address the problem.

However, councils are short of funds and facing multiple challenges of which rising levels of homelessness is only one. At the same time their budgets are growing tighter by the year.

Legislation, however well meant, can only go so far, there is a real need for new thinking about how we build and pay for housing. It may be that having a society where everyone owns their own home is impossible; we could though, were sufficient political will applied, have one where every family has a roof over its head.