MORE households in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole applied for homelessness support last year, new figures show.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures show the number of households in England assessed for homelessness support rose by 10 per cent over the last year, reaching nearly 91,000 in the three months to June.

Of those, 83,240 were assessed as requiring 'a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness', meaning housing authorities must help prevent them from becoming homeless or support them in securing accommodation if they are already homeless.

In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, 676 households had an initial homelessness assessment from April to June.

This was up from 563 in the same period in 2023, and led to 654 households requiring support.

Balbir Kaur Chatrik, director of policy at Centrepoint, said: "It is simply appalling that tens of thousands of households are facing homelessness."

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Devastatingly we’re seeing the housing emergency continue to escalate, with more and more people showing up to their council facing homelessness, desperate for help."

In England, 123,100 households were living in temporary accommodation as of June, including 500 in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

This was up from 105,750 the year before.

Meanwhile, nearly 159,400 children faced homelessness in temporary accommodation nationally up 15 per cent from the year before, and the highest figure since records began in 2004.

Rushanara Ali, minister for homelessness, said: "We are taking decisive action to get the homes we need built and our dedicated inter-ministerial group, led by the Deputy Prime Minister, is working at pace across government to get us back on track to end homelessness for good.

"We will deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and tackle one of the biggest drivers of homelessness by ending no fault evictions."