Edinburgh Council forks out £4m to house homeless in hotels as crisis deepens
Bosses at Edinburgh Council have awarded contracts to three hotels to be used as shared housing for homeless people awaiting permanent accommodation.
The local authority has spent a combined total of £4,438,035 to use the Aaron Lodge Hotel on Old Dalkeith Road, the Edinburgh Thistle Guest House on East Hermitage Place and the Miju Hotel on the West End's Hampton Terrace as temporary accommodation.
It comes after councillors voted to suspend council housing allocations as the city continues to struggle to meet the Scottish Government housing requirements.
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The authority has a duty to provide accommodation for the homeless but over the last 12 months has failed to do so on 3,263 occasions, as previously reported by Edinburgh Live.
To help give officers time to tackle the growing homelessness crisis in the city, councillors decided to freeze housing for everyone except those with the highest level of priority.
(Image: Google Maps)
Now they have awarded a £1,478,250 contract to Aaron Lodge, a £1,284,435 contract to Edinburgh Thistle Guest House and a £1,675,350 contract to Miju Hotel to provide shared housing for those who are on the waiting list for a more permanent home.
(Image: Google Maps)
A contract award notice announcing the successful tenders stated: "A Shared House is accommodation with up to forty-five bedrooms (any properties with more rooms must have prior agreement with the Council). Each household (usually an individual or a couple) must have their own lockable bedroom, access to bathroom, living room and kitchen.
"It is expected that turnover of rooms will be low. It can take up to two years or more for people assessed as homeless to be offered alternative accommodation.
"[The] average length of stay for Shared Houses is approximately five months though some are significantly higher or lower than this."
Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener Lezley Marion Cameron said changes in the law and rocketing private rents in the capital had contributed to the decision.
She added: 'With legislative and policy changes at both the Scottish and UK Government levels, combined with the most expensive private rented sector in Scotland, the number of households in temporary accommodation continues to rise.
'The reality is that demand for accommodation in Edinburgh far outstrips supply, and despite our best efforts, we are unable to meet the needs of everyone seeking stable housing despite increasing the amount of temporary accommodation available to us.
'Steps taken to address the scale of the crisis, including the reintroduction of void homes and expanding our homeless prevention initiatives, are not enough.
'We need significantly more financial support from the Scottish Government to deliver sustainable, long-term solutions. Ending the housing emergency requires a coordinated broader, and better funded effort across all levels of government.'
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