Council looks to provide 77 homes to tackle crisis
THE struggles of families facing a housing crisis in Torbay have been highlighted in a new report as the area’s low wages push more and more households to seek council help.
The report to Torbay’s Housing Crisis Review Panel this week describes a perfect storm as homelessness numbers rise and rents and house prices soar in an area where the council owns no housing stock and wages are low.
There are currently 1,400 Torbay households on the waiting list for Devon Home Choice – it usually provides new homes for 260 families a year in the Bay. The cost to the council of providing temporary accommodation rose to £2,865,756 in the last year (up 136 per cent).
The council has come up with a solution to address the rising costs to be discussed on Thursday, October 21 by the housing crisis panel at a
Zoom meeting. The report calls for the council to “procure” 77 housing units. It says these will be leased, bought, procured and spot purchased on nightly lets. The “single procurement exercise for Temporary Accommodation” will be split into 40 single lots, 22 two-bed homes, four three-bed, 10 four-beds and one five-bed.
Families on benefits typically have to find an extra £328 to £672 a month in Torbay on top of their Local Housing Allowance because of the resort’s high private rents. It costs up to £1,000 a month to rent a three-bed house – and LHA is £168 a week (£672 a month).
The report says: “The private rented sector in Torbay is unaffordable for the majority of households on low incomes, with annual wages being below the national average and rents exceeding LHA rates.
“This is particularly true for family sized accommodation. For an average 4 bed household this can mean having to find an extra £670 per month above the LHA.”
At the same time national affordable housing firm Mears Plexus has decided to pull out of a scheme in the Bay to provide private sector leasing for homeless households.
The report says: “The Council’s objective is to procure sufficient affordable temporary accommodation to accommodate homeless households within the local authority area as far as reasonably practicable or as close to where they were previously living, whilst being mindful of the budgetary constraints within which the Council operates.
“As a result of increased rent levels, the Council will continue to face increasing difficulty in securing sufficient affordable TA (temporary accommodation) units. Welfare benefit reforms including the introduction of a benefit cap for some households, has made it more difficult to afford their accommodation, meaning more reliance on council assistance.
“Under Universal Credit rules, the rent element of benefit is paid directly to tenants as opposed to direct to their landlord. This practice discourages some landlords from letting their properties to households in receipt of benefits, thereby making it more difficult to source move on accommodation, meaning households staying in TA longer.”
It adds: “Clients are reluctant to move from TA as they would like to obtain accommodation through DHC. As this accommodates approximately 260 households per year, with 1400 on the waiting list, this is not a reality for most.”