iHobo, the controversial iPhone app produced by homelessness charity Depaul UK, has received more than 100,000 downloads and earlier this week topped the download chart for free apps.

It claimed the top spot in the iTunes free app download chart last Saturday, though it has since fallen to third.

Critics of the app, which displays a virtual homeless person and attempts to demonstrate the complexity of their plight in real-time over the course of three days, have argued the concept and name is demeaning.

Designed pro-bono by Publicis London, it uses push notifications to alert the user when the iHobo needs food or support.

Paul Marriott, chief executive of Depaul UK, said: “Depaul has always prided itself on taking risks on behalf of the young people we serve and the development of iHobo was certainly a risk.

“It is deliberately designed to provoke conversations about youth homelessness and so its name and content had to be able to cause a reaction.”

He added: “We know that many of those who have actually downloaded the application have become very emotionally engaged with the issue of youth homelessness.

“And, for an organisation with no real marketing capacity, the opportunity to raise the profile of our cause and our charity to such a wide audience is immensely valuable.”