OXFORD faces a growing homelessness problem, city council chiefs have warned.

End-of-year figures show Oxford City Council failed to meet two key homelessness targets.

Over the last financial year, the council accepted 123 households as homeless – 23 per cent higher than its published target of 100.

After a steady decline in the number of homeless households, last year’s figure was up from 104 in 2009/10.

Meanwhile, on average 16 people a night slept rough in the city, compared to the Labour-run council’s target of six.

Executive member for housing Joe McManners said: “I would not want to predict a crisis, but I would say it looks pretty likely that we will see higher pressure on housing.

“The long-standing problem of housing needs in Oxford look like getting worse rather than better.”

He added: “We are anticipating an uptake in the families who have to leave accommodation as a result of the changes in housing benefit, and we have put extra money in the budget to try to prepare for that.”

Market factors were also damaging efforts to tackle the homlessness problem, Mr McManners said.

He said: “We also have had reduced funding for new house building, cutting off supply, while the impact of the recession means people have had a drop in income and are less likely to keep hold of their accommodation.

“The basic problem is there are not enough houses in Oxford for people who live here, and if we do not have an increase in the number of houses, then people are going to struggle to get them.”

A council report said the number of people in temporary accomodation had continued to fall from 861 in 2006 to 156 at the end of 2010/11.

But further reductions would be “much more difficult” because of increased demand, it said.

Lesley Dewhurst, chief executive of the Oxford Homeless Pathways charity, said: “Undoubtedly it will get worse because of the restrictions on housing benefits in the private rented sector, which will come into place in another few months.

“We expect to see it reflected in the numbers in about eight or nine months, but it is impossible to say by how much.

“I would not say there has been a significant increase to date, but we are full every night and are turning people away.”