More accommodation to help homeless families in West Suffolk

26 Jul 2024

The amount of temporary accommodation in West Suffolk to support families who have become homeless, has been increased.

As part of is continuing investment in temporary accommodation across the district, West Suffolk Council has now completed the refurbishment of two properties in the Mildenhall area to provide new temporary accommodation. 

In total, the purchase and refurbishment of the two properties represents an investment of more than £730,000. The refurbishment of the first property which has five bedrooms, includes a ground floor wet room to support people with mobility needs. An air source heat pump will heat the property.

The second property has four bedrooms and solar panels and an air source heat pump have been installed.

Both properties are also supplied with 100 per cent renewal electricity, the majority of which is generated at the council’s solar farm near Lakenheath.

It means the council now manages 54 units of temporary accommodation across the district reducing some of its dependency on bed and breakfast accommodation which is not only more expensive to the taxpayer but is often less suitable to the people the council is supporting.

Cllr Richard O’Driscoll, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Sadly the cost-of-living crisis has meant that people are struggling to keep up with their rent or mortgages and are in need of our help.

“As part of our new strategic priorities, we are currently looking at how we can help deliver more affordable, available and decent homes to help toward addressing this challenge.

“We’ve been carrying out engagement work with health and housing professionals, staff, councillors and the general public on possible actions that will shape our Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeper Strategy. In addition to a number of initiatives to increase the supply of affordable homes, these actions may include lobbying Government to tackle some of the factors that inflate prices and rents in the housing market in West Suffolk.

“While that work is about delivering long-term change, we are also working to meet the more immediate challenge, and we will always try to prevent a household from becoming homeless in the first place, and the earlier that we are involved the better.

“Between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, the council intervened to prevent 164 households from becoming homeless, a 28 per cent increase on the 128 homelessness preventions the year before.

“But prevention is not always possible which is why the council has also been investing in temporary accommodation over many years. The completion of this latest properties will see it accommodate families during what must be an extremely anxious, stressful time in their lives.”

While in temporary accommodation, the council works to provide support to help families and individuals to overcome any financial or other issues so that they can then secure a new home of their own.

Over the 12 months from 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, the council worked to support 190 households in temporary accommodation to secure a new home, lifting them out of homelessness. 

That includes Sarah (not her real name) and her three children who became homeless earlier this year after she split up with her husband.

They were in contact with the council and were placed in temporary accommodation in the district. It became their home for the next three months.

“I was just happy at the end of the day that we had a roof over our heads. We had nowhere else to go. If it wasn’t for the amazing support of some of the people in the council’s housing team, I dread to think where we’d be,” Sarah said.

“It wasn’t easy particularly for the children. It’s not like when you’ve got your own house and can have friends around or relax on a sofa but if you’ve haven’t got a house to start with, you can’t really grumble. We had to go through that hard part to get to where we are now.”

While in temporary accommodation, Sarah bid for affordable housing advertised on HomeLink. She wanted a home in a specific area to spare her children the upheaval of moving schools and from which she’d be able to get to work.
Eventually, she was successful.

“It was like a weight lifted off of my shoulders. We’ve now moved into our own home. We’ve been through that rough part in our lives to get to the good.  It’s just so nice to have a home.”

As of 1 July 2024, the council had 69 households still being supported in temporary or emergency accommodation.

The council is continuing to invest to increase the amount of temporary accommodation available to support people who become homeless in West Suffolk. The council never publicly gives the exact locations of its temporary accommodation as the people it’s helping there could be vulnerable to those who want to target and exploit their situation.

Cllr Richard O’Driscoll visited the first of the refurbished properties shortly before it came into use. You can see more on YouTube.

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