New Exeter pods will offer short term crash pad, councillor says

The pods offer a bed, a toilet, solar-powered lighting and a USB charging port

Four housing pods have been put up in a car park as a short term "crash pad" to help a city's rough sleepers, a councillor has said.

The structures, which offer a bed, a toilet, solar-powered lighting and a USB charging port, have been put on Howell Road car park in Exeter.

Users can be referred to them through a homeless outreach service.

Labour councillor Martin Pearce said they could also "offer a safe place" in an emergency.

Council figures released in December 2022 stated that the authority's outreach service had "engaged with 118 individual rough sleepers on the streets of Exeter" between July and September of that year.

At the time, a representative said there had been "a reduction in repeat episodes of rough sleeping", but for the first time, there had been "an increase in the number of people rough sleeping".

Mr Pearce said the new pods were "being used by individuals with no alternative accommodation option available at the time".

He said "ideally", those who used them would have "a pathway opening up".

"The flexibility of a pod can also mean that in an emergency, we can offer a safe place for a situation that our out-of-hours provision could use as an alternative option," he added.