A homeless shelter in Dartford has been fully booked since January in what has been described as a ‘crisis’ by a councillor in the borough.

Figures supplied by charity Porchlight said there were just nine rough sleepers in the borough a night.

The charity said last year it worked with a total of 43 people however the Dartford Church’s Winter Shelter has worked with 50 different rough sleepers in the last eight weeks.

A spokesperson for Porchlight said: “In an eight month period last year we worked with a total of 43 people sleeping rough but our local team estimate that there are typically nine people on the streets of the borough on any given night.”

Michael Pethick, an administrator for Dartford Church’s Winter Shelters, said that figure is under representative.

Mr Pethick said: “We have had more than 50 in the last eight weeks. We are designed to take 10, we upped that to 12, but we have a full waiting list and they are all generally from the local area.”

The shelter, now in its fourth year, only accepts rough sleepers or ‘sofa surfers.’

Mr Pethick said: “All our beds are booked every night. Our numbers have gone up not down, we have become more accessible and advertised more.

“They need to be rough sleepers, this year has been our busiest.

“We processed more in January alone than all of last year. We are probably 100 per cent up.”

He said official numbers for the homeless are only based on the facts available to the council, and that the shelter would work with the council to get something done.

Jonathan Hawkes, Dartford Labour leader, called on the council to do more to prevent it.

He said: “I think it is a crisis. The additional budget, while welcome, remains insufficient and will not address the problem of rough sleeping in Dartford.

“The Conservatives are also proposing no increase in the homeless prevention budget. This is a false economy – we need to tackle the causes of rough sleeping as well as dealing with emergency need.

“The question that the Conservatives need to answer is why, when their own budget is to predict a required spend of £675,000 on temporary accommodation but are only proposing a budget of £400,000.”

Porchlight said it enjoys a strong relationship with Dartford Council to provide access to safe housing.

Porchlight’s spokesperson said: “Dartford Borough Council is proactive and it works very well with us to help expand the support available to people, moving them away from homelessness and into safe accommodation.”