Councils across England spent nearly £1bn on temporary accommodation last year alone.
The annual bill rocketed 56% in the past five years, up from £602m in 2013/14 to £937m in 2017/18.
Over that period, Inside Housing claimed that the total spend was at least £3.87bn, based on figures obtained from 290 local authorities through the Freedom of Information Act.
Over the same time frame, just over £1bn was spent keeping homeless households in B&Bs, guest houses or hotels, according to the 181 councils which broke the data down into different types of accommodation for the five years.
Another £1bn was forked out for private sector temporary accommodation, most commonly either leased from individual private landlords or contracted out to companies.