Empty flats let for six months to people in need

For the next six months, people in housing need in Brent are being let flats due to be demolished in a joint scheme between Brent Council, Brent Housing Partnership and Brent Community Housing.

Tenants on the Barham Estate have already begun to move out to make way for a £80 million redevelopment. Instead of leaving the empty flat disused before the redevelopment begins, they are being made available for people in short term housing need.

Brent Community Housing works with voluntary organisations that need places for their homeless clients to stay at short notice, often single working people, who cannot afford to rent privately but are willing to stay or move somewhere for a short period of time while they make alternative housing arrangements.

Five flats are occupied already with the sixth person expected to move in to their new short term home soon.

Martin Cheeseman, Director of Housing and Community Care at Brent Council said: “This agreement works really well for everyone – especially the residents of the Barham Park Estate. Rather then leaving flats on the estate vacant, which are expensive to protect and attract anti social behaviour such as graffiti and vandalism as well as squatters, we have arranged for members of Brent Community Housing to move their clients into some of the flats on a short term basis which will provide them with some much needed housing and give both the tenant and BCH sometime to address their housing issue.”

For more details see:

www.bhphousing.co.uk
www.brent.gov.uk
www.bch.coop

Local Councils and Asset Transfer

Interesting article in last week’s Third Sector magazine about the challenges and difficulties in local councils transfering under-used buildings to third sector organisations.  The Audit Commission report  Room for Improvement found that barriers included “councils’ perception that voluntary organisations lacked the management capacity to operate assets. Some councils also resisted transferring assets to the sector because they felt they needed to get as much money as possible for them, the commission found.”

The article is here:  http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/Article/920939/Partnership-best-way/ but you might have to register with the site to see the full text.