Homes for the homeless: planning consent awarded in Cambridge
A national property consultancy has secured permission to create four new homes for homeless people in the southern city.
This week, on behalf of the charity It Takes A City, property organisation Carter Jonas has obtained planning permission to build new homes for the homeless on Hills Avenue in Cambridge – the first site for the charity.
The project will be comprised of four small properties that will be built by the New Meaning Foundation – an organisation that employs and trains young, disadvantaged adults who are themselves at risk of homelessness.
According to new research, the number of homeless people in Cambridge is rapidly increasing. In November 2022, 23 rough sleepers were identified – an increase of nine in the previous year. In March 2023, 80 homeless people were living in temporary accommodation and a further 200 in hostels.
Chris Jenkin, Chair of It Takes A City said the new scheme is an ‘exciting moment’ for the charity and for people who have been forced onto the streets as they will now be provided with a safe place to stay.
‘Excellent work by many is starting to transform the journey away from the streets, even for the most entrenched sleepers,’ Chris said. ‘Our work at Crossways community hub is changing winter provision in the city, and we aim to provide the same…support model in our modular housing schemes, to reconnect people to their community and provide wrap-around care.’
As well as providing new properties, residents, who have been identified as having ‘low to medium needs’, will benefit from s support package that includes regular visits from staff and volunteers and direction to a vast amount of statutory and voluntary sector organisations.
John Mason, association at Carter Jonas, said: ‘We are very pleased to assist in the journey away from the streets.
‘Doing so is not easy, and this was clear in the hour and a half during which the City Council’s planning committee debated the Hills Avenue scheme. However, we hope that the resulting decision to approve it will encourage more support for these schemes in the future.’
It is estimated that the new project will be fully up and running by August 2024.
Image: Carter Jonas
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