Cardiff Council has announced plans to convert the disused site into temporary housing units to help get homeless families back on their feet
A joint venture between Cardiff Council and housing firm Beattie Passive will build new housing units for homeless families.
The plans, announced at the end of October, will deliver 48 one-, two-, and three-bedroom flats to provide temporary housing while a more permanent solution is found.
Cabinet member for housing and communities Cllr Lynda Thorne said the Council was extremely pleased to be working with Beattie Passive on the venture.
She added, “We’ve made excellent progress in supporting people who’ve been homeless over the last few months and our vision for services for the future is now taking shape very quickly.”
Ron Beattie, managing director of Beattie Passive, shared Cllr Thorne’s enthusiasm for the scheme, saying, “We are delighted to be working with Cardiff Council to deliver this much needed scheme for families experiencing homelessness in Cardiff. Our Passivhaus standard modular housing … will deliver high quality, high performance temporary homes for these families.”
A helping hand
The venture forms part of the Council’s ambitious plans to tackle homelessness in Cardiff. The full plan will deliver 2,000 new homes in and around the city, half of which are to be built by 2022.
Homelessness in Cardiff is an issue that the local council has been trying to tackle for several years. In 2018 the Office for National Statistics reported that of the 2,058 households in temporary accommodation across Wales, 38% were households with children, while research carried out by the Welsh government in 2019 showed that Cardiff reported the highest number of households assessed as homeless (2,157).
Research has not yet been published detailing how the coronavirus pandemic has affected homelessness, but Welsh Government Minister for housing and local government Julie James acknowledged the issue, and said the government was committed to ending homelessness for good through joint ventures such as this.
Homelessness by the numbers
- 2,235: The number of households in Cardiff assessed as ‘threatened with homelessness’ in 2018-19
- 146.8: The rate, per 10,000 households, of homelessness in Cardiff in 2018-19
- 1,707: The number of households in Cardiff for whom homelessness was successfully prevented by government intervention in 2018-19
- 630: The number of households in Cardiff in temporary accommodation in 2018-19
- 2,157: The number of households in Cardiff officially categorised as ‘homeless’ in 2018-19
Statistics provided by the Welsh Government.