Western Morning News (Saturday)
Council plan to buy properties to house homeless
CORNWALL Council is planning to spend £15 million on acquiring properties which can be used as temporary accommodation for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness.
While the council has implemented schemes such as the Carrick Cabins in Truro which have provided accommodation for homeless people, it says that these are only temporary and that it wants to create more permanent facilities.
A report on the proposals is set to go before the council’s Cabinet next week, although the fine details of the plans are in a confidential report.
The council is looking to acquire properties in Cornwall which could be used for temporary accommodation to avoid the high costs of using bed and breakfast and hotels. The report states that the council’s overspend on temporary accommodation for 2020/21 was £5.9m.
In a worst-case scenario the financial pressure of temporary accommodation could rise to as high as £15.6m this year based on current trends.
However the new proposals could be controversial as the council is looking to reallocate more than £10m which had been earmarked for affordable housing programmes in order to fund the project.
The council is looking to use £2.794m which had been allocated for the Cornwall Land Initiative and £8m from the Community Land Trust to fund the new proposals whilst increasing its own capital programme by £4.2m.
The Cornwall Land Initiative, also known as Homes for Cornwall, is a scheme which was launched by the council to build 320 affordable homes on 11 council-owned sites.
The Community Land Trust helps to provide affordable housing across sites in Cornwall.
In the report to Cabinet it is highlighted that there are around 570 households in Cornwall in temporary accommodation and that the financial impact is “considerable”.
It adds that 2020 was an “extraordinary year” but the council’s “bold interventions” helped to provide good quality temporary accommodation such as the Carrick Cabins and Longrock facilities.
But it states: “However, schemes like Carrick Cabins are not, and cannot be permanent solutions and, although hugely useful at reducing the pressure at the height of the pandemic, the focus now needs to shift to providing a mix of sustainable well-planned schemes throughout the Duchy suitable for a range of client groups.
“It is therefore proposed that the council develops and acquires a portfolio of properties, of various types, for temporary accommodation to minimise the use of non-commissioned accommodation and reduce the level of housing benefit rent subsidy loss.
“Such a portfolio has the potential to generate significant savings to the council and there is a strong ‘invest to save’ argument for its delivery. Of the total £15m capital requested, £10.206m can be funded from reprioritising the existing approved capital programme, which are held by the authority specifically for the purposes of delivery of additional affordable housing.”
Details of how the money will be spent and properties which could be acquired have not been made public and are included in a confidential report which will be considered by the Cabinet when it meets next week.
Cabinet is due to meet at 10am on Wednesday, September 22, at County Hall in Truro. The meeting will be webcast live on the council’s website.