Cornwall Council installs cabins to be used as emergency homeless accommodation

New emergency housing for homeless people in Cornwall is being installed in Truro.

The small cabins will be offered after Cornwall Council announced plans in June to end the use of hotels and other short-term accommodation to house those in urgent need of somewhere to stay.

The temporary cabins outside the council's headquarters at New County Hall are the first to be installed.

Around a thousand people, from single-person households to families, are currently in temporary or emergency accommodation in Cornwall.

The cabins are self-contained, single-berth accommodation with basic cooking and shower facilities.

Olly Monk, the council's portfolio holder for planning and housing, said: "It is great to see the start of our plans to address this issue. 

"Our temporary Bunkabin schemes have been a huge success during the pandemic at Truro and Penzance. They ensure that we have direct access to safe, reliable accommodation for vulnerable people, rather than having to use hotels and B&Bs, where people can be asked to leave at short notice. 

"Although only temporary, the work that goes in to delivering these sites is extraordinary - they require huge amounts of co-ordinated work between our in-house Delivery Team, our construction partners, Cormac, and Cornwall Housing, which will manage the sites once built.   

"We have made a commitment to doing all we can to solve this current housing problem. Temporary sites like this are really important as they give us space to implement more long-term solutions such as our landmark new Somewhere Safe to Stay hub that we're currently building at Chough House in Truro. 

"We are going to provide as many affordable homes to rent and buy, and homes for social rent - Council houses - as possible, as well as working with our existing housing partners to accelerate this."