Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday urged Housing and Urban Development minister Hardeep Singh Puri to speak to states to try to come out with a framework so that homeless could get houses.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Puri said the capacity of government shelter homes is 1.25 lakh but occupancy is 50 per cent. Puri also said that as per the 2011 census, the total urban houseless population is over 9 lakh. The Centre also asked the states to survey homeless people living on the roadside or in the open who do not have a house.

Birla then urged Puri to speak to the state governments and draw up a framework to ensure that the homeless get to live in houses.