Plan to house homeless year behind schedule

PLANS to house homeless families in a Coventry tower block are a year behind schedule.

Councillors agreed last November for Coventry City Council to enter into a five-year lease of Caradoc Hall, in Henley Green, at a net cost of £1.7 million.

And they were told the 17-storey block could be signed and the building refurbished within a month, with the first of 102 properties available for use in December, or in January 2019.

Yet complications over the lease, refurbishment, and being unable to secure 26 privately owned rooms scattered in the building have led to huge delays.

There is some hope on the horizon though as a lease is finally expected to be agreed “in the coming weeks”.

However that will mean the first tenants will not move in until December - a whole 12 months after first expected.

The plan is intended to help reduce the amount of money spent placing homeless families in expensive temporary accommodation such as B&Bs and hotels, which can cost up to £100 a night.

Head of housing and homelessness Jim Crawshaw told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are well aware that there has been a delay to the leasing of Caradoc Hall and signing off on the 102 properties.

“This is the first time that we have entered in to an agreement to take a lease on this scale and we want to be satisfied that the building owner has completed a refurbishment of the 102 flats and other specified works to the building.

“This is an innovative yet challenging scheme to get finalised, but we knew from the outset the importance of moving families and individuals from bed and breakfast accommodation to somewhere much more suitable and cost effective.

“We expect this to be confirmed in the coming weeks, which would mean that tenants are moved into the property during December.

“We are looking to confirm the lease for a five-year term.

“This is a relatively short lease period and this is also because we wish to be satisfied that the scheme is working in all of the ways we hope it will.”

The scale of the problem The number of homeless households in temporary accommodation has increased by 186 per cent in Coventry since 2015/16, costing the council a staggering £5.5 million alone last year.

The authority has been working hard to reduce this, with the plans for Caradoc Hall helping to save around £1m a year, Mr Crawshaw said. He added: “The temporary accommodation in the building is much more cost-effective, and during the five-year period we are forecast to save in excess of £1m a year after taking into account the lease costs.”

The lease will not include the 26 privately owned rooms.

The building will include 24/7 security and monitoring.