North Yorkshire Council to spend £2m buying newbuild houses for homeless families in Scarborough

A £2m purchase of new-build properties to help house homeless families in Scarborough has been approved by the council.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee has signed off on the purchase of 11 new-build properties which will be rented out to local households in housing need who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in Scarborough.

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Members said the scheme – part of the council’s plan to address high levels of homelessness on the coast – was “another step in the right direction”.

Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, October 15, Coun Simon Myers, the executive member for housing said that as well as addressing the “ever-mounting cost” of providing temporary accommodation, the scheme recognised “that providing new decent housing for those who are often through no fault of their own made homeless is an important moral duty of this council”.

North Yorkshire Council is to spend £2m buying newbuild houses for homeless families in Scarborough. pic Richard PonterNorth Yorkshire Council is to spend £2m buying newbuild houses for homeless families in Scarborough. pic Richard Ponter
North Yorkshire Council is to spend £2m buying newbuild houses for homeless families in Scarborough. pic Richard Ponter

Currently, more than 2,500 households requiring accommodation are on the authority’s Homechoice scheme in the Scarborough area in addition to “high levels of households who are either homeless or threatened with homelessness”.

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The properties will be purchased from the developer Keepmoat and will be allocated to families who are either currently “in such accommodation or for families currently in priority need”.

Coun Myers added: “It’s quite fitting that this new temporary accommodation is in the Scarborough area where residents face some of the worst housing pressures, a great number of people are on housing waiting lists, and no-fault evictions are a great problem.”

Each property will cost £185,255 which NYC said represents good value for money in comparison with the average cost of developing a new build property.

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The cost of furnishings will be met from the Homelessness Prevention Grant and rents charged for the properties will be set at affordable rates and will include “a small service charge element”.

‘A crisis point’

Also speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, Eastfield representative Coun Tony Randerson said: “I’m here to lend my 100 per cent support to this project – but as much as I support this initiative, this is but one small step in alleviating the suffering of some 2,500 families currently without a permanent roof over their heads in the Scarborough area alone.”

He added: “We are in my view at a crisis point in and around Scarborough and we as a council need to do significantly more to ease the homelessness problem for so many in the county, but especially in the Scarborough area.”

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Coun Randerson also said that while North Yorkshire Council should build “many more” affordable homes, it should also “inflict more pressure on housing associations to get their respective fingers out to undertake more than they currently do”.

Coun Myers replied that he “noted” the comments regarding the housing associations and that “we will try and speak to them to try and accelerate things”.

Coun Heather Phillips, executive member for corporate services told the meeting: “While rough sleepers are the most obvious sign in Scarborough, it’s also the sofa surfers and the people who are hidden away in the BnBs – that’s who sometimes gets forgotten because they may have come off one list of homelessness onto another, and we have to try and start addressing that.”

The proposal was approved unanimously by North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee on Tuesday, October 15.

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