More than 250 households are in temporary accommodation in Denbighshire councillors have been told.

The stark figures were contained in a report to Denbighshire council’s partnerships scrutiny committee on Thursday.

It revealed 167 were getting emergency shelter at caravan parks and in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Another 87 were being put up in temporarily leased properties with a further 125 households in supported accommodation where they receive additional support for complex needs, such as mental health issues and fleeing domestic violence.

Phil Gilroy, head of community support services, said homelessness in the county had almost doubled and there had been “a great strain put on homeless services”.

He revealed 51 families had been moved from temporary accommodation into social housing but services were in for a “long haul in trying to move on from where we are”.

He said Welsh Government had given cash to help the county with its homelessness strategy and the authority was looking at purchasing properties to keep people away from emergency bed and breakfast accommodation.

He added: “We don’t think bed and breakfast accommodation is appropriate for people.

“People should be in emergency accommodation for a very short time. Recently we have been developing a more corporate approach, which is great, giving us the support we struggled to get until this came forward.

“The £620,000 Welsh Government funding is for a property we own, stopping families with children from moving into B and Bs.

“We are looking for similar accommodation for single people which would be bigger.

“There are far more single people homeless. We would need a property of about 40 rooms to do that.”

Mr Gilroy said plans would come before scrutiny “soon”.

Graham Boase, the council’s corporate director for economy and public realm, said some members of the public may object to plans to house lots of single people and urged councillors to support the idea and explain it to residents.

The council has been tasked by Welsh Government to end homelessness and bring in a “rapid rehousing model” for families needing help.

One of the strategies being adopted is early intervention and advice, to hopefully stop families from becoming homeless in the first instance.

Welsh Government wants the strategy in place by 2022, which was described as “very ambitious” by community support services manager Ann Lloyd.

It emerged during the debate that a Welsh Government initiative encouraging landlords to lease properties to the council for homeless families had been running since July.

Working with Conwy county council the authority is looking for 33 residences in the private rented sector in Denbighshire, as part of Welsh Government’s Private Rented Leasing Scheme.

The pilot programme provides funding to bring accommodation up to required standards, support households to maintain their tenancy and guarantees property is returned in the same condition at the end of the 5-year period.

However only one landlord had taken up the offer, said Ann Lloyd.

She said one of the reasons may be because they were only being offered the local housing allowance rates which were lower than rents commanded in the private sector.

The service was also looking at houses currently not in use to see whether they could be commissioned for homeless households.

Funding from Welsh Government had also helped the council get everyone living rough off the county’s streets, the committee heard.

Ann Lloyd said there would be no rough sleeping census because the service was “really on top of what’s happening with rough sleeping” at the moment.

She said the whole point of Welsh Government guidance was to make sure that no one was rough sleeping during the pandemic.