Way out of B&B misery

SCORES of families are accepted by Brighton and Hove City Council every year as being homeless.

But they often have to spend months in poor temporary housing, even when the council is in charge.

All too often, they are put in dispiriting bed-and-breakfast housing, which offers little privacy or space, especially for youngsters.

Both the council and the Government would like to get rid of this kind of temporary housing altogether within the next year or two.

But it is easier said than done in a city with one of the greatest pressures on housing in the UK.

The Government has now awarded Brighton and Hove £575,000 for its homeless strategy, which includes getting families out of B&Bs.

At present, the city has more than 550 households in temporary housing.

Almost 300 are in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. Although most of them are single, the figure includes 80 families.

Brighton and Hove has a smaller than average proportion of social housing, which creates further problems.

But it has a larger than normal stock of privately-rented housing and it is there the solution lies.

Housing councillor Tehmtan Framroze said the authority would work with associations to help house homeless families properly.

This includes getting associations to lease properties in the private sector, which will provide homes quickly.

The council already has strong links with many associations including six of the biggest in Britain.

Coun Framroze warned against optimism that all families would be out of B&Bs within a matter of months.

He said many would continue to be allocated this form of housing as an emergency but the aim would be to move them on within six weeks.

There are other initiatives which the Government will back.

Some of them will help prevent problems arising in the first place.

Some families break up through housing and other pressures.

A mediation worker will be appointed to try to prevent this.

Many people who are homeless, both single and in families, have drink and, more especially, drug problems. Work will be concentrated on tackling them.

Other people have difficulties, such as mental illness, which also need specialist help.

Research is also being carried out into why families become homeless to see if there are other ways of stopping it.

A report on homelessness is going before the Culture and Housing Committee tonight. It includes the bid which has been largely successful.

But there is a second strand to the bid, which Brighton and Hove hopes will soon release more than £600,000 from the Government.

This is to carry on with the work in dealing with rough sleepers, single people who sleep on the streets or in derelict buildings.

Although the numbers are going down, there are still too many.

Already great strides have been made in tackling this problem, particularly with the projects at Cambridge Road, Hove, with the St Patrick's Trust.

But there is much more to be done both with preventing this kind of homelessness and ensuring those temporarily housed are eventually able to get back into society.

Money being sought also includes cash for helping the many homeless people who are drug addicts, alcoholics or mentally ill.

Coun Framroze said the council was hopeful of getting a good settlement from the Government but the position was still unclear.

He said: "Although we face severe housing pressures in Brighton and Hove, we remain determined to do all we can to alleviate them.

"We believe everyone has the right to a secure, safe, comfortable, accessible and affordable home.

"We will keep working with others in partnership to make that aim a reality."

Coun Framroze said he welcomed the £575,000 grant, the biggest in the South East, as proof the Government recognised both the scale of the problem in the city and the efforts being made to tackle it.

But he said: "No one should expect miracles. This will simply enable us to speed up the process."