AS the latest Shelter report estimates 100 people homeless in Teignbridge I wanted to look at what that means.

It is important to realise that it isn’t 100 people sleeping on the street.  

The report does say that we have around five people sleeping on the street in Teignbridge, which is five too many – and there is a team that goes out to offer them a place.  

Indeed in the rain and the cold there is an increased effort to get them indoors which helps.

So where are the 95 other people who are homeless? 

These are families that are staying in Teignbridge provided accommodation, either temporary homes, or emergency accommodation or at worst Bed & Breakfast.  

Bed & Breakfast accommodation may sound fine if you are having a holiday, but it can be truly miserable if that is all you have.  

Teignbridge had 10 emergency accommodation places for families in Newton Abbot, and as of this week has another five places in Dawlish.  

The rooms aren’t palatial, but they are warm and safe places to stay while the housing team find a better home for the family that has found itself in a desperate situation.  

Typically they are found somewhere better in a few days.

But why do families become homeless?  

Sometimes they have been staying with friends or family and can’t stay there any longer. 

Sometimes they have been renting and had a section 21 eviction notice. It usually isn’t their fault, and it could happen to anyone.

That is why I am so keen that the council builds more council homes.  

Since The Government started selling off the council housing in the 1980s we haven’t had enough to home the people that need them.  

The ones that Teignbridge have built in the last few years have been modern, warm and cheap to heat.

But we need more. 

And we aren’t getting them from the Government’s plan to have private developers add some ‘affordable’ homes to their new estates.  

And we all know that the number of affordable properties gets reduced every time the developer hits an unexpected cost on a site – their profit margin is more protected than the affordable home provision.  

We can’t rely on just that supply of ‘affordable’ homes.

In Teignbridge we have around 12,000 private rented homes and 6,000 rented from housing associations. 

As private landlords are moving out of the market, we will see more people needing a good home to rent at a reasonable rate.

We need more council homes across the district. 

We need to build them and ensure that we can house our local residents that fall on hard times.

Having started the Teignbridge 100 programme for building modern council homes there is a plan to have 100 new council homes in preparation. 

So far we have delivered 21 and have another 24 with finance approved and in the planning stages. It’s a good start, but just a start.

We need more and faster.  

I want the next council after May to be more ambitious and go for at least five times that...