Feature: Bed is an all-night London bus, inquiry into rough-sleeping hears

Thousands of homeless people spend their lives on the streets of London, and the numbers are growing, a government report revealed Thursday.

Many sleep in shop doorways with some even sleeping on all-night buses in Britain's capital, but a committee of MPs from the House of Commons heard nobody knows the actual number of Britain's hidden homeless.

Parliament's communities and local government select committee attempted to open the door on the problem of homelessness in today's society.

It concluded there has been demonstrable increase in homelessness in Britain, pushing the problem to such a level that a renewed government-wide strategy is now needed.

Politicians heard that Britain's "hidden homeless" include people staying in night shelters, and large numbers of people who have unstable arrangements such as sofa-surfing with friends and family.

There have also been reports of people spending the night travelling on buses to avoid the streets, the committee was told.

The committee heard details of one charity helping young people in London handed tickets to some so they could sleep on all-night buses.

The charity said it gave the bus tickets are given when every other avenue has been exhausted, saying young homeless people in London were safer riding buses than on the streets.

A charity spokesman said in the report: "We tell them which routes to choose, so that they will be travelling around all night. They come back in the morning and have some cereal and a shower."

One homeless student was handed a ticket so she would have somewhere relatively safe to stay before she took her school exams.

"She rode the buses and went in and did her A-levels. You have to admire her determination," the charity said.

Howard Sinclair, chief executive of homeless charity St Mungo's, said according to the most recent report, between April 2015 and March 2016 there were 8,096 people seen sleeping rough in London.

He said this was far more than the 940 reported in an official government survey.

Sinclair said the higher figure included more than 5,200 reported as "new rough sleepers" in London between 2015 and 2016.

Currently local authorities across the country take a snap-shot on one night of the year to give an indication of how many people are living on the streets of their towns and cities.

In London a multi-agency database funded by the Greater London Authority records more accurate information. MPs on the committee have called for this system to be used across the country to give a better idea of the problem of homelessness in Britain.

MPs from the committee visited a homeless charity and night shelter in London, a charity working with young homeless people in Birmingham and met young people who had been in care and were later homeless.

The committee report states: "We have tried to look beyond the headline figures to understand the actual experiences of homeless people. Each homeless person has their own story."

Clive Betts MP, who chairs of the committee, said: "No one should be homeless in Britain today, but the reality is that more and more people find themselves on the streets, in night shelters or going from sofa to sofa to keep a roof over their heads. They are often driven there by the availability and cost of housing and have been failed by front line support services along the way."

"The scale of homelessness is now such that a renewed government strategy is a must. It needs to not only help those who are homeless but also prevent those vulnerable families and individuals who are at risk of becoming homeless from joining them," said Betts. Endit