Cornwall Council asks residents to house homeless

Shelter said it was braced for "a sharp rise in homelessness in 2023"

Residents in Cornwall are being asked by their council to help ease the county's "unprecedented" homelessness issue by becoming landlords.

Cornwall Council has appealed for help from those with a "spare room, empty property or unused annexe".

This could become "a home for a person or family in urgent need of somewhere to live", the council said.

Councillor Olly Monk said the council could help by managing properties on owners' behalf .

Councillor Monk, member for housing and planning, added: "We all need and deserve somewhere safe, warm and secure to live."

Cornwall Council is currently having to provide temporary accommodation for more than 700 households

He said schemes to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping and provide more affordable and social rent homes, were making a difference.

But he said a "perfect storm" in the local housing market meant people, including working families, were still struggling.

He said some homeowners or people with spare rooms could be "put off by the practicalities of renting them out".

The council would help, he said, by identifying potential tenants for spare rooms or "leasing and managing the letting of privately-owned properties".

To this end, the council said it had introduced a Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme, enabling it to lease a property from an owner and then rent the property on.

The council provides a "full management service" with the property returned to the owner "in the same condition as when it was taken on".

Owners are paid an amount in line with Local Housing Allowance.

The council also runs the Cornwall Housing Private Letting scheme and a homeshare scheme, matching householders with people in need of housing.

A council spokesman said there was "unprecedented pressure" on housing in Cornwall.

Earlier this year, a Devon council discussed using cruise ships to house homeless people.