Cornwall Council has purchased 29 self-contained modular one-bedroom homes from The Hill Group to help tackle homelessness
The SoloHaus units have been designed to provide self-contained accommodation, fully furnished with a kitchen, living and dining area, bedroom and bathroom, for homeless individuals.
They can be used as either a single or two-storey on a permanent basis, or they can be moved from site-to-site for short-term use.
They only require electric, water and waste connections and also have integrated cabling for broadband and TV and a single air source heat pump that provides warmth for six homes.
The homes are built in a factory in Shrewsbury and can be easily transported on a lorry. Cornwall Council will be working with Cormac to deploy the new homes to sites in the coming months.
Solve the housing crisis
Olly Monk, portfolio holder for housing and planning at Cornwall Council, said: “This marks a real tipping point in this Council’s approach to solving the housing crisis. The opportunity to buy these units was only identified at the end of August and officers have worked extremely hard over a very short period to turn this around.
“These homes are ready to be dropped onto sites and provide top-quality accommodation, with all fixtures and fittings included. They are an evolution of the cabin-style emergency accommodation that we have provided in Truro and Camborne and, over time, will remove the need for those type of pods, which we have leased.
Quality modular homes
“Buying and deploying permanent quality modular homes such as these will allow us to put homes in key locations throughout the Duchy. This is about us recognising that there are people in our communities that really need our help, and us providing them with an exceptional quality housing solution that can be deployed quickly.
“This is another example of what we’re doing to prevent using insecure B&B-style accommodation for vulnerable people. It’s about treating those people that need our help with dignity and respect.
“Nobody need sleep rough in Cornwall”
“Alongside everything else we’re doing – such as buying and refurbishing disused properties, purchasing homes at new developments and building innovative new ‘move-on’ sites – they will play a vital role in making sure that nobody need sleep rough in Cornwall or have to be housed in unreliable B&B or hotel accommodation.
“I very much hope that this is the first batch of many SoloHaus units for us in Cornwall.”
Andy Hill, group chief executive at Hill, said: “We’re thrilled to be supporting Cornwall Council’s efforts to reduce homelessness at a time of major pressure on the housing market.
“We designed the SoloHaus units to be safe, high-quality homes for some of the most vulnerable people in society and we hope that Cornwall residents will enjoy living in them.”
