Cornwall Council have constructed a new housing plan for the homeless

The local authority has been granted permission to build six accommodation ‘pods’ for homeless people instead of paying for them to stay in budget hotels.

Cornwall Council is spending £40K a day on providing accommodation for people who have lost their homes due to the soaring costs of living. 

The council have planned to install six pods in Penryn as a way of saving money rather than hosting people in hotels and bed and breakfasts. The new accommodation, which has been approved at a planning committee meeting, will be located on the Commercial Road car park, reducing the size from 73 spaces to 32.

More cabins are also in the works to be built in Camborne and Newquay, according to local authorities.

Councillors were informed yesterday that there are currently 737 households in emergency accommodation, which includes 335 single people. 

The local authorities were also informed that the number of households facing homelessness has increased by 37 in less than a month.

Due to the increasing housing crisis, which began during the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of landlords in Cornwall have decided to stop renting their properties to either sell them or convert them into holiday homes.

There has also been a lack of rental properties available because the cost of homes has continued to rise placing them out of reach for various individuals.

Olly Monk, Council Cabinet Member for Housing said, ‘We believe we will need 350 to 450 modular units across Cornwall to help keep people closer to where they want to live.

‘Families have to move great distances simply to get emergency accommodation and that is clearly unacceptable.’

Homelessness has risen throughout the UK since the cost of bills and mortgages began to rise – earlier this month the homeless charity Shelter reported seven in ten callers are worried about their housing situation. 

Photo by Etienne Girardet