Workhouses were introduced not as a way to try to provide for the poor and homeless of the country but as a means to discourage people from being poor!

 The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 recommended:

That to restore the self respect of working people the poor had to be treated worse than the worst paid labourer. Then people would choose to work rather than get poor relief, if they possibly could.
That to test if people really wanted relief, it would only be offered in a workhouse and would be so unattractive that people would only accept it if the alternative was starvation. Men and women would be separated; food would be adequate but uninteresting; discipline would be strict.

Of course, to try to combat a problem like poverty in this way today would be unthinkable for most people, it was the very mindset of the Victorian ruling classes that prompted this action.