FREEZING temperatures are cold comfort for Bradford's homeless population.

We take it for granted that we can turn the heating up during the cold snap - although for many even switching up the thermostat is a luxury they cannot really afford, but at least they have a roof over their heads.

For many bedding down under a piece of cardboard in a shop doorway is their only comfort and, it seems, even doorways will be in demand as more homeless people find themselves on the streets.

According to Juli Thompson, project manager of Inn Churches, an initiative which provides accommodation within participating churches in the city for the homeless from December to March, they are currently having to turn around seven people away a day simply because they don't have sufficient space.

Juli says they have been running at full capacity since they opened. "We have been turning seven people away a day," she explains.

She says even with the cold weather provision, which created 20 additional bed spaces, they cannot cope with any more referrals.

Benefit sanctions and illegal evictions have contributed to the increase, according to Juli who sees first-hand the struggles people are facing out on the streets.

Inn Churches is part of a collective of charities, organisations and agencies who are working together to help the homeless but there is only so much they can do.

"It is a real sad state of the time. It is not the local Government, the local council are doing everything they possibly can, but in the wake of all these quite devastating cuts to services I think it will only get worse," says Juli.

"I agree things need to be trimmed and people on benefits do need to have a review of that from time to time but they are pulling the safety nets from under them and they will force people into crime."

Juli says three of four years ago they experienced homelessness at this level. She says during that time they didn't have any street outreach workers. "Now we have 20 and the problems are still rising so it is not for the want of intervention by really good agencies, it is down to cuts and sanctions and a lack of affordable housing," says Juli.

Research published jointly by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), argues that official figures are masking the true scale of homelessness as councils are increasingly using informal approaches to tackle homelessness - such as assisting people with debt advice, help to stay in a tenancy or family mediation.

Trends uncovered in the report, which surveyed councils across the country, included growing numbers of people being forced to live away from their area amidst a lack of affordable housing locally, and more people needing help to cope with debts.

Government figures show that just over 52,000 households were accepted as homeless in England in 2013/14, marking a three per cent year-on-year fall.

But the analysis released by Crisis and the JRF found that, when official figures are combined with other steps being taken to combat homelessness, the number of cases in 2013/14 actually grew by 9 per cent year-on-year to 280,070.

Those behind the findings said that the number of cases reflects the number of actions that councils said they had taken, both formal and informal.

They said while it wasn't possible to tell from the number of cases how many households were actually involved, the general upward trend in people facing homelessness is "very clear" in the study which has been running for five years.

The report, which was commissioned to look at the impact of the Government's welfare and housing reforms, includes people sleeping rough and people living in hostels or other temporary accommodation.

Ruth Davison, chief executive of Hope Housing, a homeless charity providing emergency accommodation in its Bradford assessment centre and in volunteer homes throughout the city for those who haven't a bed for the night, says since the Crisis Centre opened in February last year they had accommodated 283 people up to December. The introduction of the cold weather provision in November doubled their bed space from 10 to 20. "And most nights 19 or 20 people stayed with us so we are full most nights," says Ruth.

"What we want for people is to be able to have their own accommodation that is sustainable so the success for us would be having empty beds."

Yusuf Karolia, head of service for housing access and homelessness, says they are currently working on putting support in place to to tackle the issue of rough sleeping through the 'No Second Night Out' approach. "We want to put in mechanisms that adhere to that so there is work in progress to do that," says Yusuf.

He says they are also looking at working with private landlords to improve their capacity of accommodation in the private sector and through schemes such as Clergy House, the Grade II listed building being converted into temporary accommodation for homeless families, and Jermyn Court, the new-build project at Barkerend to accommodate the homeless.