New numbers reveal the number of people using homeless shelters in Simcoe County is growing.

An overflow of guests at Barrie’s Out of the Cold program is forcing shelters to turn away the homeless every night. The program is already on pace to take in 6,000 thousand men and women this year, which is 700 more than last year.

“The Busby Outreach van sees about a hundred a night,” says Out of the Cold Director of Operations Carol Forget. “By the time they’ve hydro and rent, they can't afford to put food on the table.

The Youth Haven in downtown Barrie is feeling the same crunch.

“We have 20 beds, 16 have been designated as emergency beds. 98 to 100 percent of the time they are full, “ says Youth Haven Board Member Ian Maclennan. “That was the norm in the winter, you would expect that, but now it's year round.”

The Out of the Cold program in Alliston, which launched last year sees about seven to twelve guests a night. Most of them are men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, working or looking for work, who can’t afford to put a roof over their heads.

Staff members at several shelters say rent prices across the region are so high they are pricing many people out of homes.