Lewisham Council set to buy 300 houses for homeless families

A council is set to buy 300 homes as emergency accommodation for families at risk of homelessness.

Lewisham Council said it had 2,780 families in temporary housing in January, a rise of 580 from April 2022.

The south London authority said it currently "cannot not keep pace" with the demand for social housing.

The council said it hoped the plans would lead to consistent living standards for vulnerable families and reduce temporary housing costs.

There were more than 10,200 people on the council's housing waiting list in April 2022, of that figure, 2,200 were families living in temporary accommodation.

A report found that Lewisham spent more than £143,962 on hotels for homeless families last year, more than four times the amount it spent on such accommodation in 2020/21.

Currently, Lewisham Council is due to build 2,000 new homes to reduce waiting lists, but officials said specific housing for families who were reporting as homeless or at risk of losing their homes was also required.

In a report presented on Wednesday, officers said: "The supply of social housing in Lewisham cannot keep pace with demand for it.

"In the 21/22 financial year we achieved 1,017 social housing lets, compared to 10,281 households on the housing register," the report continued.

Of the lets, 196 were allocated to homeless households.

The report said: "It is therefore likely that many of those currently in temporary accommodation or on the housing register will never move into social housing.

"The council has become heavily reliant on the private rented sector to move households out of temporary accommodation."

The budget for the 300 homes has not been revealed but the authority said it was willing to spend up to £600,000 on each property.

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