A HOMELESS shelter has seen the number of young people needing a roof over their heads soar in the past 12 months.

Blackburn’s Nightsafe centre reported a 12 per cent increase in the number of rough sleepers in its latest report.

Its staff said that 722 individuals, mostly young men, used the day centre and night shelter in the last year.

The centre said they had had 3,500 visits by homeless people in 2012.

Nightsafe’s chief executive Linda Sharratt fears that constraints on council’s budgets that have led to more people being transferred to another borough to receive help, coupled with increased demand for beds, have forced more on to the streets.

The centre moved into a newly renovated building on Railway Road almost two years ago and has been fortunate to be able to continue to run its day centre and temporary shelters despite having its entire day centre budget cut in 2010.

It has been backed by continued support and a £27,000 grant from the Tudor Trust, as well as receiving £40,000 from Ahsan Syed.

She said: “A lot of the young people who come to us are in quite a vulnerable situation already and having to sleep rough can have a big psychological impact.

“The local councils try to do all they can and recognise that moving people to another borough continues to be a problem, but without funding they are in a tough situation.

“Although we’ve seen an increase in rough sleepers, as opposed to sofa surfers, I don’t think that we will see the real picture emerging until the end of this year.

“That’s when the various benefit reforms and continued rece-ssion really dig in and start to have an effect on people’s lives.”

She added: “We’re incredibly grateful to our sponsors for their continued support but would just like to see more secure governmental funding.

“That would mean that we can expand our reach instead of just focusing on keeping current services going.”

If you are interested in making a donation to Nightsafe you can do so by visiting http://www.-justgiving.com/night-safe or by texting 70070 with message ABED01 followed by the donation.