10 signatures reached
To: Maidstone Borough Council
Maidstone Borough Council: Return Empty Homes Into Use!
We ask Maidstone Borough Council to reinstitute the policy of returning empty homes into use- a policy they abandoned claiming it was not an efficient use of resources- and to provide some form of emergency shelter such as, for example, an empty commercial building.
Why is this important?
Homelessness in Maidstone continues to rise under the Tory government. The period from 2010 to the end of quarter three 2015 saw a more than tenfold increase in the number of households defined as homeless, from 12 to 157. This rise in recognised cases, along with the sevenfold increase in applications for help, shows a growing issue and a need for determined action to combat the situation.
Despite these concerning statistics, the Council have undertaken a consultation, which closed on January 25th 2016, on a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). This would effectively criminalise homelessness, by making it illegal to sleep rough within areas of Maidstone town centre.
Meanwhile planned developments to build new homes continue to move forward, but only 15-30% of new homes will form ‘affordable’ housing. Affordable rent can be classified anywhere up to 80% of the market value of the property. The average private rent for two bedrooms in Maidstone in 2014/2015 was £745 a month. As it is widely accepted that rent should take no more than 30% of your monthly income a two person household requires a joint income of £2000 per month, the equivalent of £32,000 per year, to meet 80% of this cost.
Projects such as the Winter Shelter, run by local churches and charities, are helping to alleviate the symptoms of this increasingly desperate situation. However, more must be done at a local government and national level to deliver on the causes of escalating private rents, and a lack of council owned social housing.
