Brighton and Hove City Council has announced that some council homes which become vacant between January 19 and May 1 will be used to help ease pressures on the city’s homelessness services.
The scheme has been set up due to the “significant” financial impact of the rising numbers of people needing to use nightly-paid temporary accommodation.
The council says the number of people using this accommodation have “risen sharply” in the past few years, from 114 people in 2022 to 520 by November 2025.
It anticipates the short-term measure would make up to 80 empty homes available for temporary accommodation and save approximately £0.75 million over the coming year.
According to Shelter’s 2024 analysis, 3,580 people in the city are homeless – around one in every 77 residents. Nearly 40% of the those are children in homeless households.
This increase in homelessness in Brighton and Hove saw 2,150 households placed in temporary accommodation at the end of November 2025.
The scheme will predominantly focus on households with children and those where there will be demonstrated health or educational benefits, with hopes it will improve outcomes for homeless households, reducing the reliance on nightly-paid accommodation and out of area placements.
It comes ahead of longer-term initiatives to increase the availability of temporary accommodation in the city, such as the development and purchase of more council-owed accommodation.
The council said the decision to go ahead has been taken by Councillor Bella Sankey, the Leader of the Council, due to the pressing financial situation.
It warned that it will cause delays for some people currently on the housing register, affecting homes advertised for lettings from the bidding cycle beginning 29 January.
Councillor Sankey said: “Brighton & Hove is facing a serious housing crisis with rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness, increasing levels of support needed and escalating financial pressures on the council.
“We are already taking action to increase supply and standards in temporary accommodation, which is one of the key priorities in our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2030.
“We’ve recently committed to buying 200 homes to use for this purpose, and are continuing to develop more council-owned properties in the city – including renovating a former office building transformed into modern, women-only temporary accommodation, due to open shortly.
“But in the short term we need to ease the acute pressure in the coming months, which is why we are taking this innovative step to use council homes that become vacant between now and 1 May as temporary accommodation.
“We appreciate this will mean delays for people on the council’s housing register currently waiting for a home or applying for a transfer because of the reduced availability of council homes, and we will be closely monitoring the scheme. Housing association properties and seniors housing properties are not included in this scheme and will still go to people on the housing register.
“While it will still be temporary accommodation, the scheme will provide a greater level of stability for households than some other types of temporary accommodation and the opportunity to remain within established support networks, schools and healthcare services.
“We believe this will have positive impact on mental and physical health, particularly for children and vulnerable adults.”
Source link
[Featured]
[Just In]
