A HOMELESSNESS charity helpline is being inundated with calls from thousands of people across the North in need of help.

Shelter has issued an urgent appeal for financial support from the region to keep its helpline going after recording a sharp increase in calls.

In the last year alone it received more than 6,000 calls from the North East and 31,000 from Yorkshire and the Humber - more than 100 calls every day.

That is a rise of 21 per cent in the North-East and with similar increase in demand from across the country the helpline is struggling to meet demand.

Phone lines are so busy that the charity believes many people have to ring multiple times desperate to get through.

About one in five of the callers who get through are on the brink of homelessness and face losing their home within a month.

The figures come in the wake of previous analysis by Shelter which revealed that 190 children in the North East, and 700 in Yorkshire and the Humber, will be homeless this Christmas day.

The crisis is partly blamed on a shortage of affordable homes.

The charity, which helps four million people a year fight bad housing and homelessness, marks the tenth anniversary of a partnership with Marks and Spencer this year.

The retailer will donate five per cent of every sale of its Christmas Food on the Move range directly to Shelter’s helpline.

Nadeem Khan, a helpline adviser for Shelter, said: “Every day I speak to people, many from the North East, who face losing something as important as the roof over their family’s heads.

“Hearing the worry in a parent’s voice doesn’t get any easier and sadly more and more people are coming to us every day, desperate for support.

“Without the money raised by M&S customers, thousands of calls for help in the North East would go unanswered.

“It’s heart-breaking to imagine someone facing homelessness with nowhere to turn, but the Food on the Move range means that something as simple as buying lunch can help us to be there for everyone who needs us.”

For free and independent advice from Shelter’s trained housing advisors visit shelter.org.uk/advice or call the helpline on 0808-8004444.

To make a donation to the charity visit england.shelter.org.uk/donate