High demand for housing for homeless families in Bedford - but more is on the way

Bedford borough is seeing a “high demand” for accommodation from homeless families, but more council-owned ‘family friendly’ homes will soon become available, a meeting heard.

During the Housing Committee’s questions from the public agenda item (November 2), committee chair, councillor Colleen Atkins (Labour, Harpur) asked a question on behalf of Mike Hyden about children in temporary accommodation.

“[Mike] says, ‘I understand that there are currently hundreds of children included in the households accommodated by Bedford Borough Council in temporary accommodation at the moment,” the councillor read out.

“‘I’m sure everyone agrees that this is not good for them. How does the council consider the location of temporary accommodation in relation to children’s schooling and support networks?

“‘And is there anything else that can be done to minimise the disruption and distress that arises from living in temporary accommodation?'”

Councillor Atkins responded: “Naturally we wouldn’t like any child to be living in temporary accommodation, but unfortunately that does happen. Officers work extremely hard to find every way possible to ensure that the temporary accommodation that they are in is of good standard.

“The council has been investing in buying up properties for temporary accommodation, and some of these specifically able to accommodate families. I’ve been to some of the new properties that we have purchased in Saint Peter’s Street, and also in Tavistock Street.

“[Here] we’ve got a new block of flats which will be starting to be used very shortly, and they’ve got accommodation in them that take families and with a good number of bedrooms as well,” she said.

Lee Phanco, the council’s chief officer for assessment, application and business support, added: “When we do get to the point of offering temporary accommodation to a family the team will give as much consideration as possible to the location, taking into account the family’s needs, particularly the location of schools.

“But there is a high demand for accommodation from homeless families at the moment. And in reality it’s not always possible to find accommodation that’s in the same area of the borough that they’ve been living in.

“But if people are required to move away from the children’s schools the homelessness team will then liaise with the council schools transport team to establish what can be done in terms of assisting the family with getting the children to school and minimising any disruptions of their education.

“They will also contact children services if there are any other concerns about the impact of homelessness on the children’s well-being,” he said.