Former student homes bought by Coventry council to house homeless

Further deals are in the pipeline to help the city's vulnerable

Former student homes have been bought by Coventry City Council to house the homeless.

Deals were struck for five private-rented properties in the past few weeks and it is hoped they will be in use by the new year, the authority said.

A five-bed home, three three-bed homes, and one six-bed home outside the city centre form part of the scheme.

The council is also in discussions with Coventry University to buy two purpose-built student accommodation blocks – a 26-bed property and a 16-bed property.

Both deals are still ongoing and dependent upon planning permission and legal agreements, the council said.

A further six-bed private residential property is also on the council’s radar.

They make up 68 of around 100 beds the city council said it aims to purchase as temporary accommodation for homeless people in the city.

The council has previously used costly hotels and B&Bs as a form of temporary accommodation which has seen their housing and homelessness service drum up continuously large overspends – £3.4m last year.

Why are they building new student accommodation when they can't fill the ones which already exist?

Why are they building new student accommodation when they can't fill the ones which already exist?

A perfectly valid question Dutchman. Especially when we are living in the present climate when more and more courses are going to be conducted on-line.

I ve heard the university is failing .

I 've heard the university is failing.

My understanding is that many universities are in trouble. Now, most if not all, of these universities will have management and business courses being run, possibly at MBA level. A case of physician heal thyself: or are they all so blinkered in their teaching that contingency planning is a missing topic? - Either way, I think it a dreadful indictment on our learning institutions.

Yes its sad its come to this. I was wonder how long before schools will be going on line to teach education to children as you mentioned above of universities being taught on line which is done in some other countries with schools.

I was listening to the radio last week they mentioned about working from home is convenient to the companys as now some are realising and saying we no longer need this office space and rental costs. So I can see a lot of empty buildings.

Also they mentioned how robots are now coming in replacing manual jobs I think they said 40 percent of jobs will go.

If a job can be done from home it can also be done in China or India!

Dead right Dutchman. Another round of job exports coming?

Homeless hostel plan in Coventry refused over crime and security fears



A bid to turn a student block into a homeless hostel in Coventry has been rejected after concern not enough had been done to tackle fears over crime.

The council’s bid to change the use of 72A St Margaret Road, St Michael’s, was narrowly thrown out by a planning committee on Thursday, October 15.

Committee members said they were “sympathetic” to the issue of homelessness but serious doubts were raised over the location and security measures in place.

Plans sparked huge concern from neighbours who had sent 22 letters of objection and a petition of 164 signatures in opposition, also raising concerns over drug issues on nearby Far Gosford Street.

Speaking at the planning meeting, committee member Cllr Naeem Akhtar said: “If we put people who need more support in that area we will see the problem in the streets – we have seen that in Hillfields. We can’t police that 24 hours.

“Once they are out of their flat we will see people outside the off-licence and in the streets. If we don’t support them properly there’s no point putting these vulnerable people in an area if they have drug or alcohol issues – you are putting them right next to the drug dealers or off-licence.”

One resident, Paul Davies, said residents feared a number of HMOs were being used as “bail hostels”.