To secure accommodation for rough sleepers.

The decision was taken to:

1.    Approve that a letter of intent be sent to A2Dominion for the use of Canterbury House for 50 weeks from 3 August 2020 by way of a management agreement between St Mungo’s and A2D, with the Council undertaking to enter into an agreement with St Mungo’s for this work and complete a full agreement by 17 July 2020.

2.    Approve the allocation of a budget £660,486 for this use to be funded from housing benefit income, government grant (if approved) with the remainder from reserves if necessary.

An extensive search for properties to accommodate rough sleepers was undertaken in the city to secure up to 120 rooms.  Ideally it would be on no more than two sites to allow for effective management.  The YHA Oxford is available for 9 months up to the end of March providing 41 rooms.

Two individual houses were offered by Colleges and some rooms in Commonwealth House were tentatively offered, but the accommodation did not have en-suite facilities, would not offer enough rooms to avoid the use of hotels, and would be difficult to manage with staff having to work between a number of small sites.

Gordon Mitchell, Chief Executive

Decision taken in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Affordable Housing, the Head of Financial Services and the Head of Law and Governance.