Forced to live in temporary accommodation, they are prevented from playing a part in society.

BBC News Online spoke to some of those people who found themselves out of house and home.

Graham McEvoy lost his house after caring for his parents

Graham left his �25,000-a-year job as a purchasing manager for a US company to care for his elderly parents in 1998.

"They had been robbed twice by thieves pretending to be from the gas and electricity board," he said.

As their health declined, Graham was forced to put them into nursing homes and soon after they died he was crippled with debts from the fees he had to pay.

Unable to come up with the money, his home, which he had shared with his parents, was repossessed and he was evicted.

Just four years after moving in with his parents he was destitute.

No fixed abode

A man in his mid-fifties, he had gone from a two-bedroom maisonette in Ruislip to sleeping in a cardboard box in the market at the back of St Martins-in-the-Field in London's West End.

"In the winter I rode the buses at night just to keep warm - downstairs on the back seat against the engine.

"The N15 from Paddington to Romford allowed me to get about an hour-and-a-half's sleep.

"I'd shave and wash every day using the public toilets at Paddington station.

"I looked for work but of course I was of no fixed abode.

"As soon as they see that you've got no chance."

If you'd told me two-and-a-half years ago I was going to be homeless I'd have laughed my socks off and told you you were mad Graham McEvoy

Graham was eventually picked up by a team working for the homelessness charity Outreach.

He has been living in a hostel for three weeks.

Well turned out in a black suit despite his circumstances, Graham is philosophical about what happened to him.

"In some respects my age and experience helped me. I knew London like the back of my hand. I was probably better equipped to deal with it than many of the youngsters."

Graham said the perception of the homeless is their greatest hindrance.

"If you'd told me two-and-a-half years ago I was going to be homeless I'd have laughed my socks off and told you you were mad."

Like many women who find themselves on the streets Yvonne was escaping an abusive relationship and found she had run out of options.

Yvonne Powell had been in an abusive relationship

After checking herself into a women's refuge, she moved from Suffolk, where she had bitter memories of the violence she suffered at the hands of her former partner.

Her first stop was at a hostel in north London.

"There was a lot of drugs and violence and I couldn't stay there," she said.

"I started volunteering for Oxfam and a homeless charity called St Martin's Social Care Unit.

"They helped me to find another hostel to stay in."

Yet the former teaching assistant found even working as a solicitor's receptionist could not get her out of the cycle of benefit dependency and homelessness.

"I had what I was told was a good salary - I earnt about �1,000-a-month - but it still wasn't enough to pay rent and eat," she said.

"The whole point for me was to be able to become completely self-sufficient with no benefits, yet the stigma of homelessness could not be erased from the address column of my CV."

Yvonne, who still lives in a hostel, is now working with the Crisis charity on a musical.

She would like to return to working with children.

Danny Gregory lost his job after becoming homeless

Danny, who dreamed of a career in the media, has not had a place to really call home for almost a third of his life.

"I've been homeless since I was 18 when my mum kicked me out because she didn't agree with my career decisions," he said.

"I wanted to work in the media but instead she sent me off to the army and when I left she said don't come home.

"I found myself homeless, I was kipping rough and at the first hostel I found I was robbed of everything I had bar the clothes on my back.

You get into a situation where you feel trapped - you get depressed and lose motivation Danny Gregory

Last year he managed to get a job working in a bar in the West End of London.

But he became homeless within the first month of working there and ended up losing it.

"I was unable to deal with the pressure of trying to keep the fact I was homeless a secret, finding somewhere to sleep, getting washed and having clean clothes so I could go to work.

"There is a big stigma about being homeless.

"It's almost impossible to get rented accomodation if you are of no fixed abode.

"You get into a situation where you feel trapped - you get depressed and lose motivation."

He says the hostel situation is weighted against people who want work.

On Jobseekers Allowance he pays �20 a week but if he was to find work he would have to pay more than he could afford.