Homeless families put in holiday camp as housing crisis deepens
AHOLIDAY camp is being used by a council to provide housing for homeless families. Flintshire council said it is using Pontin’s Holiday Camp in Prestatyn to house families in emergencies as its housing service reaches “breaking point”.
The council said the number of people waiting for a council home across the county since September has grown by a third.
Clare Budden, the council’s community and enterprise chief officer, said: “There are currently just over 1,600 people on Flintshire county council’s waiting list for housing.
“This compares with just over 1,200 at the end of September 2016, demonstrating the growing need for social housing in the area.
“The council occasionally uses Pontin’s at Prestatyn for short stays to accommodate people in need of emergency accommodation, say after a fire or where rented accommodation is deemed unsuitable for health and safety.
“The accommodation at Pontin’s provides larger families and people with specific needs access to their own cooking facilities.”
Councillor Bernie Attridge, the council’s lead member for housing, said pressures were mounting on the housing service.
He said: “The homeless service is at breaking point, but we pride ourselves that we will not see anybody rough sleeping and will find somewhere for them to stay.
“Pontin’s is only used to put larger families up in an emergency where bed and breakfast would not be appropriate and when they need cooking facilities.
“There is increasing pressure on the council house waiting list, which is being caused by austerity and demand seems to be outstripping supply.
“However, we are looking to build 500 new council houses over the course of this council.
“We have reached our borrowing cap for this, otherwise we could have built another 500.”
In October last year, figures showed virtually every one of Flintshire’s 7,176 houses, or 99.7%, were deemed “non-compliant” with the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS), leaving only 24 as being up to scratch.
Flintshire council bosses insisted they were ploughing cash in to ensure they were up to the national standard by 2020, with bathrooms, kitchens and heating systems being upgraded.
The figures also showed nearly half of council-owned housing in Wales had failed to hit the quality benchmark.