Croydon Council invests £10m to house struggling families

Homeless man. Pic: Ed Yourdon

The council hopes £10m will house 100 homeless families. Pic: Ed Yourdon

Croydon Council announced yesterday the investment of £10 million into a property fund that will provide housing for homeless families.

The council is teaming up with Broadway Homelessness and Support and fund manager Resonance to accommodate homeless people in around 100 properties.

The sum will be invested in Real Lettings, which provides affordable and comfortable accommodation in the private rent sector for homeless people, will provide one and two-bedroom apartments.

Councillor Dudley Mead, cabinet member for housing, said: “With house prices going up beyond what is affordable to the council, we have to look at alternative and innovative ways of buying property to increase the supply of housing available to the council.”

He added: “This will ease the pressure on the council in managing homelessness and means we can place families in good quality accommodation.”

Croydon is the first authority to apply for the scheme. The council announced that it would invest another £10 million if the plan was successful.

Daniel Brewer, managing director of Resonance, said: “Croydon have shown real leadership by using their balance sheet, rather than just relying on increasingly tight revenue budgets, to provide for some of their more vulnerable families. We’re hoping a number of other London boroughs will follow suit.”

The scheme will see the council listing tenants and Broadway placing households into the properties.

Susan Fallis, assistant director of services at Broadway Homelessness and Support, said: “By investing in the Real Lettings Property Fund, Croydon Council is tackling homelessness in the borough head on. Their commitment is helping to ensure homeless families in the area get access to high quality but affordable private rental accommodation that may otherwise have been out of reach.”

 

 

 

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