Homeless spark boost in budget

The cash injection was agreed by Arun District Council members in response to the recession which is seeing increasing numbers of parents and children losing their homes.

The money will be spent on providing temporary B&B rooms, a rent deposit scheme and repairs to buildings leased from private landlords.

It is needed because just 4,000 of the original 120,000 annual budget for deposits remains just three-quarters of the way through the year.

Cllr Gill Brown, the Conservative-run council's leader, said effects of the worsening economic conditions were being felt by families around the district every day as they were deprived of the roofs over their heads.

"In the first six months of this year, we have had a 45 per cent increase in the number of homeless applications and a 55 per cent increase in the number of households placed in B&B accommodation compared to the same period last year.

"Every effort is being made to prevent homeless people going into B&B accommodation. They have to be housed in temporary accommodation while their application is being investigated," she told councillors.

The latest figures from the council show that 73 applications for housing were being investigated by officers. Households in B&Bs numbered 22.

Limited chances were available to move them on because the hostels which would normally have been used were full.

Cllr Mrs Brown said a letter would be sent to the government's housing minister, Margaret Beckett, to ask for a meeting to protest against a new rule that the amount of temporary housing must be cut in half by the end of 2010.

This was the wrong move at the wrong time, she stated.

"This must be the third housing minister we will have written to in as many years. We want to ask her to remove this policy for temporary accommodation at a time when the building of new housing has almost stopped."

Cllr Simon McDougall, for the Liberal Democrats, added his group's support to the approach to Mrs Beckett.

"I am concerned about the rule to stop using temporary accommodation. This council has suffered a lot of experience of using B&B.

"We have successfully got on top of that issue through the sufficient use of leasing in the private sector," he stated.

"However, given the current situation if we were not being required to hand back properties those 22 families in B&B may possibly have been in a better choice of family accommodation."

The extra money backed by councillors will see 55,000 put towards more B&B rooms in the months until April.

A further 40,000 will start a rent deposit scheme for those private sector landlords with whom the council is still dealing.

This scheme will replace the rent deposits and should save the council from having to pay so much money upfront when a tenant moves into a property.

The remaining 30,000 will fund repairs to properties being handed back to landlords under the government's scheme.

The need to return more properties than expected is increasing the costs for which the council had budgeted.What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

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