A UNIVERSITY report has found that the number of homeless people forced to sleep on floors with friends or relatives is relatively high in Craven.

The new research reveals that "sofa surfing" is more common in rural areas than in cities and urban locations.

The figures have come to light in a report by Sheffield Hallam University for the homeless charity Crisis and the Countryside Agency. Craven was compared with Sheffield and London.

The research involved interviewing 164 people who had no home and, of the 35 in Craven, 65 per cent had only ever stayed with friends and relatives.

Crisis is now calling on the Government to improve support to friends and relatives of homeless people to compensate them for their help.

The report reveals a world where people sleep on floors for months on end as an alternative to sleeping rough. Most were uncounted and unacknowledged by homeless statistics.

Margaret Clark, of the Countryside Agency, said: "Vulnerable people in rural areas are also at risk. They face additional problems in accessing the services they need."

Shaks Ghosh, Crisis chief executive, added: "We've known for some time there are people hidden from view living in this way, but we're now able to see just how common an experience sofa surfing is."

Craven had emergency cover as well as nine flats - 11 beds - available for homeless people. There was also help available from Foundation Housing which has a base in Skipton and provides temporary short term accommodation.

The report's findings in Craven were:

* The vast majority of homeless people in Craven (77 per cent) had stayed with a friend or relative since becoming homeless;

* Only half of the homeless people in Craven who had stayed with a friend or relative had approached the local authority as homeless and only one in five who had stayed with a friend or relative had been recognised as homeless;

* Homeless people in Craven are more likely to be born and bred locally;

* The reliance on friends and family for a place to stay appeared to be linked directly to the virtual absence of alternative temporary accommodation options;

* There is a relative dearth of specialist services in the district, and people were instead relying on the assistance provided by other services (college or school, probation, health care providers and such like);

* Homeless people staying with friends and relatives in Craven reported a relatively high incidence of various personal problems and challenges, including time spent in care, mental health problems, involvement with the criminal justice system and alcohol and drug use problems.