Desperate homeless people from Bradford have inundated a national charity's freephone helpline, campaigners said today.

Shelter, which runs Shelterline, says the callers from Bradford were the ones most likely to be already homeless or imminently facing homelessness.

And new research published today pins the blame for homelessness on domestic violence, financial problems and the lack of a safety net for single people.

Bradford had the ninth highest number of calls to the charity's housing advice line in its first year out of 25 cities in a national table.

More than 75 per cent of those 216 calls from the city were from people either on the streets or about to lose their homes - the highest proportion in the table, which includes London.

Shelter says a chronic shortage of affordable homes and soaring rents are pricing people out of the housing market.

Janice Fife, Shelter area manager for Bradford, said: "The report doesn't mean that Bradford has the ninth highest figures for homelessness - it just means more people have phoned about it.

"But it is an indication that there are problems in Bradford. I am very surprised how many were either homeless or about to become homeless considering the size of the city."

She said people under 25 were restricted in the amount of housing benefit they can claim and this in turn affected the amount of money they had to either raise a bond for a home or pay for accommodation.

"Another big problem is that there are not enough facilities in Bradford for temporary overnight accommodation."

Geraldine Howley, of Bradford Council's housing department, said: "Bradford is in the Premier League in its support of homeless people. Shelter's statistics are distorted. The reason why a high number of Bradford people call their Shelterline is that we actively promote it and have their leaflets in our offices."

She said that people fleeing violence were always made a priority whether they had children or not - meaning that Bradford's policy was more generous than the national standard.

In addition, the authority gives £1 million a year to voluntary sector housing agencies.

National Shelter Spokesman Chris Holmes said: "People are often blamed themselves for becoming homeless.

"But these figures show the reality is different. Most people end up without a home through no fault of their own. Our report shows how some incredibly vulnerable homeless people receive no help under current housing law."

The Government's homelessness tsar Louise Casey visited Bradford this week for the annual general meeting of CHAS Housing Aid.

The director of the Government's Rough Sleepers Unit said: "The Government is determined to help tonight's rough sleepers rebuild their lives and take action to prevent new people becoming the rough sleepers of tomorrow."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.