Plans for a privately-developed homeless hostel in De Beauvoir will go ahead to the next stage, despite concerns the accommodation will not be suitable for long-term stays.
The council’s planning sub-committee confirmed that the hostel at 337-359 Kingsland Road will provide temporary accommodation for 292 families, providing support for some of the 12,500 families currently awaiting a home on Hackney’s housing register.
The hostel will have Wifi across the building, meeting and study rooms and communal laundry facilities.
However, concerns were raised by some local residents about the standard of accommodation, including the size of rooms, which were deemed by many to be too small. Despite abiding by size rules for temporary accommodation, one councillor raised a concern that the rooms could be used for long-term occupation in all but name.
In response to the application, the Kingsland Conservation Area Advisory Committee, an independent local group that focuses on design, conservation and heritage matters, wrote: “The individual rooms may exceed the minimum regional room size standards for temporary accommodation but, given the very long waiting lists and the acute shortage of permanent housing in Hackney, future tenants may expect to live for extended periods in the hostel.”
“What I’m most upset about is that both the Council and the Greater London Authority continue to perpetuate this myth that people live in this accommodation for a matter of weeks and months”, said De Beauvoir councillor Polly Billington.
“[Based on the existing temporary housing in De Beauvoir] we know as councillors that we are dealing with people whose children are born there and are now going to school there,” she said.
“How can we call ourselves a child-friendly borough when we approve accommodation where people will effectively be raising their children in rooms the size of a hotel?”
Jan Clark, the operations manager responsible for temporary accommodation for Hackney Council said: “We are in a time of extremely high demand for temporary accommodation. Hostel accommodation has become crucial in responding to demand.”
The hostel “will help move away from poor quality accommodation”, she added.
