The number of homeless people in emergency council accommodation in Brighton and Hove is at an all-time high.

The number of single, homeless people sleeping rough in the city is also far higher than anyone had suspected.

Almost 3,700 homeless families asked Brighton and Hove City Council for help last year, fifty per cent more than approached the authority as recently as 1998, it is revealed exclusively in The Argus today by executive housing councillor Tehmtan Framroze.

Soaring private sector rents, which have increased by ten per cent in the last 12 months, are being blamed for the crisis as landlords only let flats and houses to tenants who can afford rents at the market rate.

The council's housing budget faces a projected overspend of £2.2 million, almost wholly because of the cost of housing homeless families.

Coun Framroze said: "It is a crisis situation, there is no doubt about it.

"If we are not able to get more Government funding we will have to consider how we can meet the budget because there is limited money available.

"I am appealing to the public and the Government to recognise that housing should be given a higher political priority."

The authority estimates it needs to build 15,000 new low- cost homes over the next five years to cope with demand.

A council survey showed 25,000 people were living in unsuitable accommodation. That amounts to 12 per cent of the city's population and is double the national average.

Other surveys have shown there are usually between 40 and 45 people sleeping rough on the streets of Brighton and Hove on any night.

But Brighton Housing Trust suspected the numbers were higher and checked over 16 months those who said they had nowhere to go that night.

The total was 1,132 separate people and director Jenny Backwell said: "We were shocked at the sheer numbers.

"We hadn't understood the scale of the problem until we started collecting the evidence and assumed other people hadn't either.

"Stating there are 20, 30 or 40 rough sleepers in Brighton may be absolutely true on a given night, but it totally disguises the real problem both the council and organisations like ourselves have to cope with."

Ms Backwell said of the 15 drug-related deaths in the first quarter of this year, seven were homeless people and one was a Big Issue seller.

The trust commissioned researcher Lori Streich to produce a report.

She said 70 homeless people a month filled in yellow slips which formed the basis for her findings, but many more who came to the trust did not.

A third of the homeless were local people and a great proportion had come from London.

A fifth were under 24 and another fifth were between 25 and 29.

A third were in their 30s and the oldest client was 72.

Almost half of those surveyed did not say why they were homeless, but of those who did many said it was because they could not find affordable housing.

Ms Backwell said of the report: "It tells a story of human pain and vulnerability and lack of care which, in spite of dwindling street count numbers, is ongoing and deserves attention."