Housing a homeless family in a bed and breakfast hotel costs £924 a week on average in Manchester, a council report has revealed. More than 100 families are being booked into B&Bs every month across the city as the town hall struggles to find suitable accommodation for those becoming homeless.
B&Bs and hotels can only be used as temporary accommodation for families in 'exceptional circumstances' and for no more than six weeks. But every month, more and more families are staying in B&Bs for longer than 42 days.
It comes four years after a Manchester Evening News investigation revealed the squalid living conditions faced by the city's 'hidden homeless' population. But last month, the newspaper found that families were still being housed under the same roof as alcoholics, sex offenders and infestations of rats.
READ MORE: Five things Manchester is doing to tackle homelessness now
Manchester council has now committed to an 'ambitious' target of having no families placed in B&Bs for longer than six weeks by the end of June, with no more than 10 families placed in this type of accommodation by the end of the year. To do this, the town hall will need to find alternative accommodation.
Councillors were presented with plans to invest in more suitable temporary accommodation and prevent people becoming homeless in the first place at a scrutiny meeting on Tuesday (January 10). The report also explained that the move should save the council money because of the high cost of using B&Bs.
Labour councillor Julie Reid was shocked by the 'huge amount' spent by the local authority on this unsuitable type of temporary accommodation. She said: "On economies of scale, surely we could buy something better?
"For example, some of our hotels are now working in partnership with us. Surely they can offer us a better deal than that.
"I'm sure if I went on booking.com I could get it cheaper. Why are we paying this amount of money?"
Assistant director of homelessness Rob McCartney responded, saying: "We're not going to enter into agreements with hotels or bed and breakfasts for families because it's unlawful to place families in bed and breakfast.
"But the alternative is, as we've set out, the leasing arrangement where we estimate, currently, if we were to place 200 families in these self-contained units rather than bed and breakfast, we would be saving £7m per year and we would be providing a decent level of accommodation to families as well."
The local authority is looking at leasing more self-contained accommodation from private providers to be used as an alternative to B&Bs, with 200 properties expected to be available by the end of March. This will cost £7.9m over five years, but using costly B&Bs less should save approximately £34m.
The council is also changing policies with the aim of preventing homelessness. This includes allowing people to live temporarily with friends and family if they become homeless without losing their place in the queue for social housing.
The council will also consider providing one-off financial assistance to people who are at risk of being evicted by private landlords. It is hoped that this new approach will relieve some pressure on the demand for temporary housing.
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