20/9/24

Plans for another 280 new council homes for the city, to help ease the extreme housing pressures facing the council, have been announced today.

More people than ever before are seeking homelessness support and the city's temporary accommodation is all full.

As part of its rapid response to this housing emergency the Council is proposing to acquire three more properties in the city that would provide a further 280 units of accommodation. This is in addition to the property and land purchases already in process to help tackle demand.

The new plans, which involve acquiring an existing student accommodation block of 103 apartments, an operational hotel providing more than 150 units and a 20-bed House of Multiple Occupation, will be discussed by Cabinet at its next meeting on September 26.

Work is already in process to deliver the 250 new homes approved by Cabinet in May with 33 of the 99 high-quality, family accommodation units in two Cardiff Bay buildings expected to be ready by March next year, while the rest will follow later in 2025. Progress on the rapid deployment of 120 highly energy-efficient, pre-fabricated modular homes, on a 1.87 acre vacant plot on Pierhead Street is also being made.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said: "The plans we announced earlier this year to increase the range and sufficiency of accommodation in the city are moving along well, but these alone will not be enough to meet the pressures we're experiencing now, and what's ahead over the coming year.

"Fresh challenges are emerging all the time, so it's vital that we are constantly looking for new options to boost the availability of affordable housing."

As well as outlining the recommendation to progress with the further property purchases, subject to financial viability and the necessary grant funding being in place, the report to Cabinet also provides an update on the on-going housing emergency.

Temporary accommodation is full, with 563 families currently residing in standard temporary accommodation and 183 in hotels. Accommodation for single people is also operating at capacity with 780 individuals in temporary and emergency accommodation in addition to 153 individuals in hotel provision, while the number of rough sleepers in the city has remained at around 50 individuals.

Additional pressures are expected to further impact on already outstretched provision for both family and single person's accommodation over the coming months, so another hotel has been sourced to provide a place to stay for single people, while the completion of the modular development at the Gasworks, with the handing over of the remaining units, is expected to be sufficient to meet the demand for families.

Cllr Thorne, added: "Current homelessness demand remains extremely challenging.

We had hoped to reduce the number of hotels we've been using as temporary accommodation but that hasn't been possible unfortunately and we remain, still very much in the midst of this emergency.

"We're building new council homes right across the city so there is a better supply of affordable homes but it's just not quick enough to meet the exceptional demands we're experiencing right now.  We urgently need more accommodation so we're doing everything we possibly can to help those who need our housing support."

Cabinet will also be updated on the recent consultation on homelessness services in Cardiff, including the proposed policy changes to help people move out of temporary accommodation into permanent homes more quickly. Following the consultation which took place over the summer, the changes which include making accommodation offers outside of Cardiff where appropriate and also where appropriate, offering homeless applicants permanent housing wherever suitable housing becomes available in the city, will be taken forward.

Cabinet will meet on September 26 to discuss the report recommendations. The full report will be available here:  https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=151&MId=8546&LLL=0

Ahead of that meeting, Community and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee will meet on Monday September 23. Papers for that meeting are available here: https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=8560&LLL=0

And the meeting can be watched via the live webcast here: https://cardiff.public-i.tv/core/portal/home