Housing crisis boosts cost of homelessness in city to £7m this year
TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION COST SET TO BE CUT BY COUNCIL
A NEW emergency accommodation system is being developed in Nottingham to try to cope with soaring demand from homeless people and cut the number of families housed temporarily in hotels.
The city is experiencing a crisis in terms of people losing their homes. An average of 120 homeless families – defined as a household with children or a pregnant mother – applied to Nottingham City Council for housing every week in January. This has boosted the cost of homelessness support to the council to £7m this year.
Housing people in need is a legal duty the council must fulfil despite its ongoing financial crisis. But the authority has turned to more expensive hotels and B&BS as its own temporary accommodation is frequently full. There were 650 families in temporary accommodation at the end of January – 143 in hotels.
The soaring cost of homelessness is one of the reasons blamed for the council’s precarious finances, which have required sweeping cuts to its budget.
Temporary accommodation is predicted to cost the council £6.7m this financial year – far outstripping its £4m budget.
A report to a council committee lays out plans to move away from hotels and B&BS in favour of cheaper private accommodation, such as flats, houses and other self-contained units.
The system will use money already allocated for temporary accommodation to house residents in places other than hotels. This is expected to be at least 15 percent cheaper, using block bookings in advance rather than on-the-day hotel bookings.
If all hotel stays are replaced, the system is expected to save £1.1m in the coming financial year. A list of possible suppliers will be drawn up by June.
Since 2017, the council has increased the amount of temporary accommodation available for homeless families from fewer than 100 units to more than 500.
However, this has still been unable to keep up with the number of people threatened with homelessness.
Rising rents, the cost-of-living crisis and the lack of affordable housing are blamed.
The council is working with more than 2,100 families who are either homeless or are in danger of being, according to the report. It says that the overspend on temporary accommodation has been driven by “high demand and prices commanded by hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation for relatively short stays”.
The council also says it has a plan to increase homelessness prevention work and reduce the time it needs to accommodate people for. The long-term use of hotels has been deemed unsuitable for families due to the lack of cooking and living facilities.
Government guidance says families with children shouldn’t be placed there for more than six weeks. The council’s pilot scheme was discussed at the committee yesterday.