Struggling council urged to buy hotel to help homeless

CASH-strapped Aberdeen City Council was yesterday accused of "losing the plot" over suggestions that the authority should splash out £1.7 million to buy a hotel to help ease a homelessness crisis.

The leaders of the authority's Liberal Democrat and SNP administration revealed this week that the council will have to implement 120m in budget cuts over the next four years.

But a report, to go before next Wednesday's meeting of the full council, is calling on it to consider buying a hotel or bed and breakfast establishment to ease the growing pressure for temporary accommodation for the homeless.

The crisis in the city has been exacerbated by the refusal of the council's licensing committee to grant a multiple occupation licence for Aberdon House, a new 40-bed hostel in Tillydrone.

The council is currently using 180 properties for temporary accommodation.

Paul Hannan, Aberdeen's 'homelessness manager, states in his report that about 40 people a month have not been provided with temporary accommodation, despite the council increasing provision by about 50 places.

He adds: "We are struggling to meet the demand. The increased presentations mean longer waiting times for interviews. This in turn increases the number of lost contacts, repeat homelessness cases and our overall homelessness journey time has increased to over 100 days.

"Providing additional temporary accommodation at Aberdon House was an interim initiative, which would have taken some pressure off.

"There is still a risk of one of our other accommodation units being closed, and a bed and breakfast establishment that provides us with 28 places is up for sale."

Mr Hannan then outlines a series of potential solutions to help the council address the growing problem. These include buying a 25-bed hotel at a cost of 1.7m, a bed and breakfast establishment, or a 1.35m block of eight flats.

Mr Hannan states: "Purchase of such establishments would result in no loss of subsidy but, although there would also be additional costs, the service would generate a net gain for the council, plus having an additional asset."

But the proposals were condemned by Jim Hunter, the opposition Labour housing spokesman. He said: "They have lost the plot – the whole administration."

Mr Hunter added: "There are other public buildings we could be using, but they want to use boarding houses and hotels. We're cutting jobs, but they want to spend money on this."

Next week's meeting of the council is being asked to delegate authority to senior council officials and the convener of the finance and resources committee to finalise and implement the use of other properties for temporary accommodation or to purchase other accommodation establishments.