On an unremarkable evening last November, the congregation of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square listened quietly as the names of 141 people were read out. Each had died that year without a home they could call their own; for many of them, it was the only funeral they had.

Nobody knows yet how many people will have to be memorialised this year. But on Wednesday, another name was added to the list. A Portuguese former model, a lover of singing and yoga, was found dead in Westminster tube station, just a few steps from the underground entrance to the Houses of Parliament. The man, believed to be in his 40s, is one of four rough sleepers to have died in London in the first six weeks of this year.

He had been staying in the emergency night centre at The Connection, a central London homeless charity. He had been there regularly for two months – surpassing the 28-day limit normally imposed by the charity – and was due to move to another shelter. It was in the short gap in between that The Connection’s outreach workers found him dead in Westminster, close to a House of Commons side entrance.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers and a card signed by Jeremy Corbyn were left in the underpass where the homeless man was found dead. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

The man, who has not yet been officially named, had “complex circumstances”, the charity said – he had struggled with mental health problems and was known to use alcohol to self medicate. But he had previously been a model and worked in hospitality: the week before his death, he had applied for a job as a waiter.

Cordelia Wise, the deputy manager of the charity’s education, training and employment team who had worked closely with the man, said: “[He was] tall and elegant and striking in appearance. He dreamed of success in the entertainment industry and took great care of his personal appearance. He was really determined – he believed in himself and his potential and was doing what he could to realise his ambitions.”

In the wake of his death, Pam Orchard, the chief executive of The Connection, warned that the Portuguese man was likely to be one of dozens who would die homeless in London this year.

“We’re very keen that people respect that this man was a real person, with strengths and talents who was also having a terrible time,” she said. “But he is also one of a growing number of people who are dying on the streets, and that is very concerning.”

She said government policies of sustained austerity and cuts to vital services had resulted in a rise in the number of people using the charity’s services. It has a day centre offering showers, laundry, food and help with finding housing and jobs and an emergency night shelter with 45 camp beds.

“When you operate a policy of prolonged austerity, when you cut drug and alcohol services, mental health services, housing services, I’m sorry but you lose the right to be surprised that people are falling through a net where the holes are getting bigger every day,” she said. “That is the reason rough sleeping is increasing so much, and it urgently needs a comprehensive response.”

Rough sleeping in England has increased for seven consecutive years, with official figures showing 4,751 people slept outside overnight in 2017. The number of children in England stuck in hostels and other temporary accommodation has risen to more than 120,000, according to government figures.

The tragedy led to an outpouring of anger from within Westminster, with the shadow housing minister, John Healey, accusing Tory ministers of ignoring the huge rise in rough sleeping. “Rapidly rising homelessness shames us all as a nation,” he said.

A message on behalf of the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was attached to a bunch of flowers placed where the man was found. It read: “This should never have happened. As a country we must stop walking by. Rest in peace. Jeremy Corbyn.”

Meanwhile, charities urged ministers to urgently unfreeze housing benefit, warning the policy was forcing people out of their homes. Heather Spurr, the policy officer at Shelter, said the welfare payments covered rents in the bottom 30% of properties in an area in 2011.

“But after successive years of caps and freezes, the current local housing allowance rates are well below the amount landlords would charge even for the very cheapest homes,” she said. By 2020, Shelter estimates that even the lowest cost properties will no longer be covered in 83% of areas.

A critical lack of housing was a “massive and growing” contributor to the problem, said Orchard, but Westminster – and other high-density urban centres – needed specialist clinical treatment services to tackle drug and alcohol problems to prevent further deaths. People concerned about a rough sleeper should contact StreetLink, which coordinates help for homeless people, she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The underpass at Westminster tube station where the homeless man was found dead on Wednesday. Photograph: Isabel Togoh/PA

Westminster has a high concentration of the UK’s rough sleepers, according to The Connection, which supports 4,500 people every year. It warned that there was also a rise in vulnerable people using spice and other drugs “which have a devastating effect on people’s physical and emotional health”.

Asked about the man’s death, rough sleepers in the Westminster area said it did not come as a shock; homeless people die “all the time around here,” said a 50-year-old man sitting with his dog on Parliament Street, who did not want to give his name. “All of a sudden people care for about five minutes, like at Christmas.”

He became homeless three years ago after separating from his wife, he said. He had been housed in a flat for 10 months but was told he would be evicted after not signing up for universal credit. “I didn’t do the computer stuff so they kicked me out. But I left before they evicted me so they said I had made myself intentionally homeless,” he said.

Amy, 33, wrapped up against the cold outside the National Portrait Gallery, said her husband lost his job and they could not keep up with mortgage repayments and had been on the streets since April. Her five children, currently living with her mother in a two-bed flat, thought she was staying with a friend, she said. “I don’t think people are actually aware how many of us there are,” she said. “When people were horrible I would say ‘do you know what? I was you once.’ I never thought I’d be homeless, ever.”