The cost of homelessness is set to soar, with the council expecting to plough an extra £2.5m to address the problem by 2014-15.

The rising number of people needing costly bed and breakfast accommodation has already caused a £274,000 overspend this year.

Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness has worked with churches to run a winter night shelter since 2009.

Operational director Matt Hatton said there had been an increase in rough sleepers from Eastern Europe, nearby Hounslow, Elmbridge and Epsom and central London, a trend he said the Olympics could increase.

He said: “We have got to look after people who have a Kingston connection.

“In the past three years we have more than 120 people passing through the shelter. That’s why we are putting forward a plan for a permanent shelter in St Peter’s Church.”

Meanwhile, Government cuts to housing benefits have also added to costs.

The council said the changes have failed to push rents down, forcing it to budget a 1,400 per cent rise in the cost of its private sector rental scheme.

Councillor Rolson Davis, executive member for finance, said: “The Government has passed the problem to us, but not the money, and now the council taxpayer is having to pick up the tab.”

Surbiton church leader and Kingston Food Bank founder Paul Pickhaver said: “The council’s figures reveal a dramatic rise in projected housing costs which they attribute directly to Government benefit cuts.

“Costs otherwise borne nationally will have to be paid for by taxpayers, not to mention the impact on families and those on the housing list.”

The council had 517 households in temporary accommodation at the end of December, and there are six rough sleepers in the borough on any given night.

Feet ‘blue with cold’

Moroccan chef Sam Samaani was forced to live on the streets after his documents were destroyed in a blaze at the restaurant he worked in.

Since that fateful night two years ago he has been homeless and has hungered after a “normal life”.

Having worked all his life he said his experience showed how vulnerable people were and how easily circumstances could change for the worse.

The 57-year-old said: “I lost everything. I have slept in parks, outside offices, it’s not easy.

“Last year in winter it was freezing cold, it was snowing. I want to go back to a normal life, this is not easy.”

Mr Samaani, who has lived in the Surbiton area for the past 20 years, was staying in the night shelter in Kingston United Reform Church on the night of the Sleep Easy event in Kingston’s Memorial Gardens.

The event raises funds for organisers YMCA London South West, Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness and Faith in Action.

Mr Samaani said the event was nowhere near what he and many others had to endure, but appreciated that the event at least raised awareness and would help the night shelters continue running.

He said: “When you do it for a long time its different, you are just trying it for a night, but at least you are telling people.

“I sleep there when it’s raining and we can’t go home the next day.

“You are safe in the park but we are on the streets, there are many drunken people around.

“It’s cold; sometimes my feet are blue with cold.”