Bath: Building set for £1m revamp to house homeless

A historic building in Bath is set to get a £1m revamp to provide supported accommodation for former rough sleepers. 

Bath and North East Somerset Council is planning to convert 23 Grosvenor House, a Grade l listed former hotel.

The building has 20 self-contained flats which will be offered to "older, entrenched rough sleepers".

Grosvenor Place (where No 23 sits) was built in the 1790s and recently owned by an affordable housing provider.

The council owns the building which has been used as emergency accommodation for rough sleepers since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

It says its plans for 23 Grosvenor House, which is valued at £1.6m, are "significantly different" to its current use, and will see it turned it into supported housing to help people with a history of rough sleeping to live independently.

Priority will be given to people with a connection to the area and the accommodation will be offered to "older, entrenched rough sleepers for whom living alone is too challenging", said the council.

Setting up the supported housing scheme is expected to cost £220,000, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Council leader Dina Romero said a report detailing the plans would be "carefully" considered.

"We need to support our most vulnerable and this report sets out the next steps that we could take to help to move people off the streets, and with support, onto better futures."