New accommodation for rough sleepers in Arun 'unviable'

Arun District Council’s housing and wellbeing committee heard at its meeting on Thursday, January 25, that a planned bid for funding from the national government’s single homeless accommodation programme (SHAP) was no longer going ahead.

Officers said the time to either build, buy or renovate a property to fit up to seven homes was too short and the cost too high, with the properties needing to be ready by March 2025.

Plans proposed 29 New Road in Littlehampton as a location for the bid, as it is already owned by the council’s housing revenue account (HRA).

It would have seen the property remodelled to fit five self contained homes from the current seven HMO like rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchen, but this would have seen a loss of income for the council every year and would not see a return on investment.

Modular housing on empty land was also proposed but officers said the ‘financial modelling’ did not work.