A South London council is set to buy a portfolio of 300 houses as emergency accommodation for families at risk of homelessness.

Housing bosses at Lewisham Council have been alarmed by a stark rise in local families who are reporting as homeless or at immediate risk of losing their homes.

The authority is already due to build 2,000 new homes to reduce waiting lists, but officials say that specific homeless accommodation is also required.

They hope purchasing the homes outright will help the council bring down the ballooning sum it is spending on emergency accommodation – and lead to more consistent living standards.

The total sum to be put aside to fund the purchases has not yet been disclosed. However, Lewisham Council has said it is willing to spend up to £600,000 on each property. 

Lewisham paid over £143,962 on hotels for homeless families last year, more than four times the amount it spent on such accommodation in 2020/21. 

The number of people approaching the council in danger of losing their homes has jumped by 31pc from 2,833 to 3,723 in two years.

As of January 2023, the council was housing 2,780 families in temporary accommodation, an increase of almost 60pc in just over seven years. 

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The most common reason for people becoming homeless in the borough last year was friends or relatives asking them to leave.

But a council report notes that landlord evictions are on the rise. 

It reads: “There continues to be an increasing percentage of private landlords choosing to increase their rent in line with market prices, or choosing to no longer rent out their properties resulting in them disposing of the properties altogether. 

“In 2019/20, this accounted for 19pc of all [homelessness] acceptances which has increased to 26pc in 2022/23 (year to date).”

There were over 10,200 people on the council’s housing waiting list as of April last year. Of that number, more than 2,200 were families living in temporary accommodation. 

Lewisham Council plans to start work on 2,000 new council homes by 2026 in an attempt to bring down the number of families languishing on its waiting list.

But the council has admitted that it can’t keep up with the demand for homes – and said the move would mean they have scope to house families in the most desperate need.

A report recommending the purchase of the 300 properties presented to Lewisham’s cabinet on March 8 reads: “The supply of social housing in Lewisham cannot keep pace with demand for it.

"The number of social housing properties available for letting has been steadily decreasing, with the number of social lets made by the council decreasing by 51 per cent since 2015. 

“In the 21/22 financial year we achieved 1,017 social housing lets, compared to 10,281 households on the housing register. Of these, just 196 were allocated to homeless households. 

“It is therefore likely that many of those currently in temporary accommodation or on the housing register will never move into social housing.

"The council has become heavily reliant on the private rented sector to move households out of temporary accommodation.”