South Cambridgeshire District Council to help buy one-bedroom apartments to house vulnerable homeless people

A new scheme designed to offer more homes for vulnerable homeless people in South Cambridgeshire has been launched.

Money has been put forward by the district council to help buy one-bedroom and studio apartments for single people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

A report to the council’s cabinet on Monday (December 12) said that while the district has “relatively low” levels of rough sleeping, there are a lot of single homeless people for which it struggles to find suitable homes.

Vulnerable people unable to live in shared accommodation are often placed in bed and breakfasts, which was “unsuitable and expensive”, said the report.

The council plans to use up to £350,000 of government grant funding to help Ermine Street Housing afford to buy five to seven “reasonably priced single person self-contained properties”.

These properties will be leased via Shire Homes Lettings – the district council’s private sector leasing scheme – to people referred by the authority’s housing team.

Cllr John Batchelor (Lib Dem, Linton), the lead cabinet member for housing, said: “This project is designed to address a particular issue we have with single homeless people, who get trapped in B&B facilities for much too long, because we have great difficulty in finding proper accommodation for them.”

Council leader Cllr Bridget Smith (Lib Dem, Gamlingay), said it was an “innovative” way to address the challenge.