While the issue of homelessness is commonly associated with the image of a rough sleeper, the crisis may in fact be far more widespread and less obvious.

On any given night in Great Britain, 71,400 individuals and families lacking a permanent home are forced to ‘sofa surf’, according to the charity Crisis.

As a result of their situation, the charity said these ‘hidden homeless’ may suffer from mental health problems, struggle to hold down employment and have difficulty accessing resources which could help them avoid becoming rough sleepers.

Kenny, who did not want his surname used, told the Recorder how he had become homeless after moving out of his parents’ house into a hostel.

“The hostel got robbed, and then I moved out and had nowhere to go; I ended up staying with friends, family and anywhere else,” he said.

He explained that many of his peers found themselves in similar situations and claimed he knew of at least four or five places in Havering where people were squatting as a result of homelessness.

“There just ain’t enough houses about, the rent is too expensive for anyone to live in them and good luck getting a mortgage,” he said.

Ruth Jacob, senior policy officer at Crisis, said housing affordability was a “massive part of the problem” for people in insecure housing.

In response to the pandemic, the government raised local housing allowance rates to match the cheapest 30 per cent of housing in an area, but the benefit has been re-frozen for the subsequent two years despite rising prices.

Ruth said insecure accommodation is often a vicious cycle, where the conditions of sofa surfing – perhaps not having a key to the property or being able to control your own bed time – make it difficult to hold down a job, thereby making it impossible to afford secure housing.

A nationwide survey by Crisis found that while 93pc of sofa surfers had approached a local authority for housing support, their new housing status was recognised in just 46pc of cases.

Kenny, a transport worker, said this had been his experience.

Ruth said the finding had raised concerns that councils “don’t always take the situations of people sofa surfing as seriously as they need to”.

What is being done about homelessness in Havering?

Housing affordability is not only a problem for the homeless.

The cost of temporary accommodation privately leased by Havering Council rose by more than 50pc in the four years up to 2020.

According to the borough’s five-year Prevention of Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, around 800 properties are leased by the council from the private sector as temporary accommodation.

The council’s cabinet last month agreed plans to invest almost £60million over five years to buy properties for homeless families.

The authority will provide money, from equity and loans, to its housing company Mercury Land Holdings to buy 150 homes on the open market across the borough at an average cost of £395,000.

Between April 2020 and March 2021, Havering saw an increase of more than 500 homelessness applications on the same period for the previous year.