The YHA in Butetown was fully booked to keep residents safely off the streets during lockdown
CARDIFF Council is poised to buy a youth hostel it has used to house homeless people throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The council fully booked the YHA hostel on East Tyndall Street last spring, when extra space was needed to keep clients safe and reduce infections.
YHA Cardiff Central has provided 80 of Cardiff’s 182 additional units of supported accommodation, sites established across the city to address homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The opportunity to buy the YHA hostel we’ve been using for almost 12 months now is an exciting one,” said Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said Coun Lynda Thorne.
“The accommodation and services we’ve delivered there have been crucial to the success we have had during that time, supporting people away from life on the streets.”
Cardiff Council runs several services for homeless people at the YHA Cardiff Central, including counselling.
The proposed purchase, which will be discussed on Thursday, is part of Cardiff Council’s No Going Back approach to the delivery of homelessness services, a plan to build on the rapid response to get rough sleepers off the streets last year.
Other measures include the establishment of a new assessment centre and on-site emergency accommodation for single people and expansion of the city’s Multi-Disciplinary Team, a holistic approach to tackling an individual’s homelessness.
“We’ve had an unprecedented opportunity to work with the vulnerable people who needed our support over the last year and we don’t want to lose that momentum,” said Coun Thorne.
“We’ve committed to no going back and buying the hostel is an important step on that journey.”
The Cabinet will consider the proposal to purchase the YHA hostel on East Tyndall Street on Thursday, February 25.
Coun Thorne added: “We are making such good progress on all aspects of the new vision we outlined last summer.
“I’m confident that new provision such as the assessment centre and new family homelessness centres coming on stream this year will enable us to sustain the success we had in 2020 and ensure we are doing the best we can to support vulnerable individuals and families experiencing homelessness.”
