HOMELESSNESS in Southampton has doubled in just over a decade and threatens to push council budgets to the limit unless a radical new strategy slows it down dramatically.

A new report shows that numbers have shot up from 375 in 1990 to 779 last year with city council housing chiefs predicting if nothing is done the explosive growth will continue.

Now they are pouring an extra £100,000 into a new strategy to head off a potential homelessness time bomb that is being fuelled by the property price boom.

Initiatives include maximising the number of available homes in the city, developing measures in response to the main causes of homelessness and improving the quality of temporary accommodation. A spokesman for the council said: "We are doing a number of things. We are treating the problem and also looking at trying to prevent it as well."

He added that the actual number of homeless on the city's streets was very low and that most people represented in the new figures are in temporary accommodation or "sofa surfing" - moving around friend's homes.

"This is a way of life that's suitable for young people for a short time but when you have a child as well it is very hard," the spokesman said.

"We predict that it will increase. What we are hoping to do is to get a better idea of the causes of homelessness so we can try to stop it happening.

Main causes are thought to be domestic violence, relationship breakdowns, quitting private sector housing and increasing house prices in the south.

The new strategy was welcomed by Trevor Pickup from the charity Society of St James which houses 170 homeless people at any one time in a shelter, 12 houses and a range of one-bedroom flats around the city.

He said: "It's essential to plan how services can be improved. We have been working closely with the local authority. If we keep doing the same old stuff we are not making any improvements.

"The key issues are the misuse of drugs and alcohol, so the most effective programmes would be to help people in these areas. We don't feel preventing people becoming homeless in the first place is really the issue.

The strategy was due to be discussed at the city council's housing panel today.