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Block booking at hotel as number of homeless families more than doubles
27/11/2024
The local need reflects a national trend of rising homelessness and rough sleeping
A lack of accommodation for homeless people has left Cherwell District Council using rooms at local hotels. To provide stability for the families a block booking at the Whateley Hall Hotel has been in operation since August at a cost of £33,000 per month.
Due to rising demand the council has been using 15 rooms at the hotel and now wants to secure agreement to use those rooms until the end of March next year.
In the long term the council owned Town Centre House will be used, in part, for housing 24 households in temporary accommodation. The Whately Hall provision has been used pending Town Centre House becoming available following recent work to replace the building’s roof.
Cherwell’s provision for homeless people has historically been provided using a block next to the Musketeer Pub and in Sanctuary Housing units. But in the last year the need for temporary accommodation has more than doubled, reflecting a national trend of rising homelessness and rough sleeping. Since April the council has had an average of 68 households in temporary accommodation.
The arrangement with the Whateley Hall came after families were forced to move when ad-hoc bookings with other hotels could only be secured for short periods. The council says the arrangement with the Whately is cheaper than ad-hoc bookings and will provide greater stability to the people needing temporary accommodation.
Its hoped Town Centre House will be back in use early next year. Some of the units are being used on their first letting for refugees who have moved to the district on government resettlement schemes. This was a requirement of the grant to cover the building’s repairs. The rest of the units will be used to help the council with some of its immediate housing pressures.
Other work is underway with South Oxfordshire Housing Association and Sanctuary Housing to bring forward more temporary self-contained housing from their stock.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam