Site for two emergency homeless shelters secured

A site to house homeless shelter pods has been found, the chairman of a charity has confirmed.

Caritas said it had been aiming to provide immediate shelter for those with nowhere safe to sleep and no other housing options.

The States revealed there were more than 60 people on an urgent waiting list for housing - one islander recently said she was "extremely lucky to live in a garden shed" when she had nowhere else to go.

Chairman Graham Merfield said the charity had secured a site to place two pods, subject to planning approval.

He said: "We are now working through the planning process and the planning team are being very helpful in helping us through that.

"We're anticipating our application will go in over the next weeks and our goal is to have the first two pods here for next winter, which would be September, October time."

Mr Merfield said the sleeping pods had a bed, a chemical toilet, a charging point but no plumbing and were "for emergency use only" to house one person at a time.

He said: "Those pods are really intended for the people who are really in desperate need of accommodation. They're not intended to be temporary accommodation.

"Our longer term goal is to build a community of modular homes to address the need for temporary accommodation."

The charity said it still aimed to provide modular homes, or "tiny homes", which would have a sitting area, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and plumbing.

Following the recent Guernsey general election, the new president of the island's housing committee, Deputy Steve Williams, said he wanted to get spades in the ground and hundreds of homes under construction within his first year.

Mr Merfield said the charity were "cautiously optimistic" by what had been promised so far.

He said: "We've already had some positive dialogue with some of the new deputies and we're looking forward to meeting with the new housing committee under Steve Williams' leadership.

"I think having the responsibility for housing under one committee rather than spread across numerous committees should bring what I think they're terming a 'laser focus' onto the housing issue.

"Clearly, we need see what they can do both in the short term and the longer term to address the urgent needs and the longer-term needs of more affordable accommodation in the community."

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