THERE are no longer any children having to live in bed and breakfasts in the district.
Warwick District Council’s housing team made it its mission to address the issue of families having no alternative but to stay in temporary housing across the district.
In the run up to the festive season, the team set themselves an ambitious target of sourcing alternative accommodation for 22 children under the age of 18 who were living in B&Bs in time for Christmas.
Working in close collaboration with colleagues from the assets team to accelerate the release of empty properties from existing housing stock, and by supporting and prioritising identified families through the council’s HomeChoice scheme, the team of officers, not only rehomed all the families living in B&Bs, by December 24, but also reduced the overall number of children across the district living in other forms of temporary accommodation by 39 per cent.
As of January 20, there are no children living in B&Bs in the district. The remaining 30 children requiring temporary homes are being housed in council-owned self-contained accommodation, which is allocated for this purpose.
WDC’s housing spokesperson Coun Jess Melrose said: “Although we welcome the success of this initiative, our aim is to go much further to ensure that all families in our district have somewhere to call home. The use of bed and breakfasts and other short-term accommodation is a last resort for those facing homelessness. Our immediate aim is to reduce the long-term use of B&Bs, by sourcing more appropriate self-contained accommodation in the private rented sector through the introduction of a private sector leasing scheme.
“In the longer term our strategy is to increase the availability of affordable housing across our district, particularly council homes at social rent levels.”
