Crawley's homeless placed in temporary accommodation has more than doubled in three years
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During a meeting of the full council, leader Michael Jones said that, as of September, 355 households were being supported – 75 of them outside the borough.
In September 2019 the figure was 167.
He told the meeting: “Until this year, the main reason was always family exclusion but it’s now far and away people losing their private rented accommodation through evictions.”
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Hide AdOn top of that, staff are working with 667 people/families who are in difficulty but not yet at the stage of declaring themselves homeless.
In the lead-up to the pandemic, that figure stood at 177.
Mr Jones said: “[The council] has a solid record of looking after residents – and rough sleepers are in single figures currently.
“But that’s because the council has urgent arrangements to put a roof over the heads of those who qualify.”
But a report to the meeting said the supply of temporary accommodation available to the council was reducing
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Hide AdReasons included space being taken by people placed there by other housing authorities and space being taken up due to refugee bridging – the use oftemporary accommodation while a family’s needs are assessed.
Some hotels were simply unwilling to take in anyone.
With an increase in demand has come increasing costs.
Mr Jones described a £900,000 overspend predicted in the already substantial budget allocated for temporary accommodation this year – adding: “Because of how bad the problem is, however, we will have to adjust this to £1.2m – and that’s assuming it doesn’t get worse.”