A charity which helps young homeless people says the number of teenagers seeking a roof over their head has rocketed by 50 per cent.

Workers at the City Centre Project cannot accommodate everyone in the charity's eight bed hostel and last year had to turn away young people on 291 occasions.

Some find space on friends' floors or are granted emergency temporary accommodation with Bradford Nightstop. But many vulnerable 16 and 17 year olds end up walking the streets. Sometimes workers have had no option but to simply hand a young person a sleeping bag and wish them luck.

The heartbreaking statistics show the effects of a DSS clampdown which made it harder for 16 and 17 year olds to claim benefits, the charity says.

Richard Garland, who runs the City Centre Project hostel, said: "The numbers of people we are having to turn away has risen drastically.

"In 1995-6 we turned away about 200 people on occasions when we were full. That's now increased to 291 in 1997-8.

"Of those, 112 were under 18, the vast majority were actually roofless as opposed to homeless, with nil income, and very few other options. They end up just wandering the streets."

The hostel, which offers eight single rooms, is a lifeline, according to one resident. Michelle, 22, moved in two months ago and, with the support she has had there, ended her £20 a day heroin habit.

"I was lucky," she said. "Going there helped me get away from people I knew who were using drugs. There's always someone around to help you if you need help, and they are easy to talk to."

Rachel Johnson of the City Centre Project said the crisis was caused by changes to the housing benefit regulations in October 1996.

"We have seen, over the last 18 months, an increase in the numbers of young people we aren't able to secure accommodation for. Before, we used to do a lot of work with private landlords and could usually find a bedsit in a week.

"The new rules mean the DSS will only pay the cost of a single room for under 25s, which in Bradford is £34 a week.

"As a result, landlords have stopped taking under 25s as tenants. And our hostel is getting clogged up. There are occasions we have had to apologise and hand out sleeping bags - they sleep in sheds and skips or just walk the streets."

A spokesman for Bradford Council confirmed the proportion of homeless people aged 16 or 17 was growing as a percentage of the total.

In 1997-8, 100 of the 3,015 homeless 'households' who sought help from the Council were 16 or 17 - 7.3 per cent of the total. This compares with 5.7 per cent of the total in 1993/4.

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