New 'homeless pods' approved in Cambridge
The city council agreed earlier this year to provide £25,000 funding towards the pods
Newly approved homeless pods will help people to ‘not just survive, but thrive’ the project leader has said.
Cambridge City Council has approved plans to build four modular homes in Hills Avenue, which will provide temporary accommodation for people who have been homeless.
The planning permission allows the pods to stay on the site for the next five years.
Concerns had been raised by some in the area that four pods was too many to build on the plot of land.
The land the new pods will sit on is owned by the city council and was once part of a private garden for 39 Hills Avenue, but has more recently been used as a community garden.
The city council agreed earlier this year to provide £25,000 funding towards the pods, which will be managed by the It Takes a City charity.
Chris Jenkin, from It Takes a City Community Land Trust, told councillors at a planning committee meeting this week (August 2) that the number of people rough sleeping in Cambridge had increased.
He said: “Excellent work by many is starting to transform the journey away from the street, even for the most entrenched rough sleepers, but this journey needs a destination, somewhere to call home.
“A home is more than just a front door key and more than a support worker, a home represents connection and community the things that rough sleepers had to leave behind.”
Mr Jenkins said through the pod homes the charity wanted to “reconnect” people with the community and provide wraparound care so that people “do not just survive, they thrive”.
He said the charity had asked the city council to refer people with “low to medium needs” to the scheme, who he said would be able to benefit from being in a “community setting”.
He also explained to councillors how the modular homes themselves are made off site at a training facility for young disadvantaged people, who he said were themselves at risk of homelessness.
Mr Jenkins told councillors that to keep the scheme financially stable and rents for the pods low, the charity needed to “maximise the scheme’s size”.
He added that by doing this across the various sites, older pod schemes will eventually help to provide funding for new pod sites in a “virtuous cycle”.
Councillor Geri Bird, the executive councillor for housing and homelessness, asked the committee to support that application. She said it was her “big ambition to get as many pods as possible” opened across the city.
Cllr Bird said the pods would give people a front door key, enable them to get a bank account, and then a job. She said they were “just normal people desperate for a front door”.
Concerns had been raised about the number of pods due to be built on the site. One neighbour Jean Guy said the “general feeling” was that two homes would work better on the land, but asked councillors to consider putting “no more than three” pods there.
However, she said: “Whatever the decision, we will be caring and respectful to our new neighbours.”
Councillor Katie Thornburrow said the plans offered an “important social benefit”, but said she had concerns about how much space the pods would take up on the site.
She asked if the committee approved the plans whether it would be setting a precedent for a future development on the site to take up the same space.
Planning officers explained that every application had to be considered on its own merits, and highlighted that the current proposals were for a temporary specialist housing.
Cllr Thornburrow said she was also concerned about the amount of outside space that would be available for people living in the pods to enjoy, and raised concerns about one of the trees that would need to be cut down to make room for the four pods.
Councillor Naomi Bennett asked whether there were services nearby to help support people living in the pods.
Planning officers said there was a convenience store within an eight minute walk, and a GP surgery within a 12 minute walk. They also said there was a bus service on Hills Road that could take people into the city centre, and highlighted that the train station was also nearby.
Councillor Dave Baigent said the application was a “massive opportunity” to help people and ‘bring them back into the community’.
When the plans were put to a vote six councillors voted to approve the application, with one councillor choosing to abstain.