A county in the south west has as many people waiting for housing as it does holiday lets, new figures reveal.
Campaigners are now calling for action after figures showed Cornwall has 15,000 holiday let properties like Airbnbs - the same number as families on social housing waiting lists.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England says that there has been a 661 per cent more short term listings in Cornwall as there were five years ago.
The charity also noted that there were roughly 15,000 families on social housing waiting lists as of last September - although that figure is now likely higher.
This is roughly the same number as the total number of holiday lets available in Cornwall.
The charity is now calling for the creation of a second home tax and a better definition of 'affordable housing' being put in place.
Dawn Rudgewick-Brown, a former homelessness charity worker who herself found herself on the social housing waiting list after being evicted from her rented home in Truro, told Cornwall Live that the figures didn’t surprise her, but that it is a “ridiculous” situation.
She said: “I don’t understand how anyone could say the two aren’t linked - families waiting and the number of holiday lets.
“If you walk down a street in Cornwall, you can find 15 houses which aren’t being lived in. It seems mad.
“People are entitled to buy what and where they want to, but there has to be a consequence for having two houses, or renting one out to holidays. There has to be a higher council tax, or something.
“It has to be made less attractive. Cornwall has enough touristy hotels, and other places to stay.”
In 2021 Cornwall saw a rise of more than 30,000 additional visitors, according to the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce.
Local charities such as Harbour Housing and the Newquay Drop In and Share Centre have said they are picking up the slack of the evictions and rise in homelessness - but they are ''stretched thin''.
A spokesperson for Harbour Housing labelled the explosion in homelessness as an 'inferno'.
The organisation now recommends that planning permission be amended for homes listed as holiday homes or AirBnB lets.
They are also calling for more investment in the housing sector and additional support for initiatives and schemes which are trying to minimise the impact of Cornwall's growing homelessness crisis.
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