A LACK of appropriate housing in Monmouthshire is resulting in increasing numbers of households staying in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Currently, 117 households who need moving to other accommodation are relying on temporary housing, including 96 single people.

A council report says the number of households in temporary accommodation has quadrupled, with around 56 people currently being accommodated in bed and breakfasts.

This includes 31 young people, aged 16-24, who are in bed and breakfast or shared accommodation, with 27 of these having mental health issues.

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A council report says all young people are considered to need specialist accommodation and housing support, which “largely is not currently available”.

A meeting of Monmouthshire council’s children and young people select committee meeting was told on Wednesday that the council is struggling to place young people in appropriate accommodation.

Ian Bakewell, housing and communities manager, said the authority is “operating at capacity”, after a spike in demand for temporary accommodation.

“We do get high risk people coming through for various reasons and because we are at capacity it is extremely difficult to place as we would want to,” he said.

Cllr Martyn Groucutt warned the council is leaving young people, some with severe needs, “at grave risk to themselves”

“At present, I think it’s a matter of luck we have not had some very serious consequences,” Clr Groucutt said.

“I would dread the day when I hear on the news that someone has been murdered, or involved in some horrific incident, and that we as a council are partly culpable because of the lack of support that we provided.”

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni said the only way to tackle the issue was by building more homes.

“Everything else is just firefighting,” he said.

“The only way you deal with this is building houses in the right places that people can afford.”

The county council is preparing a plan setting out the provision of more sustainable accommodation and at improving the quality and availability of temporary, permanent and supported accommodation.

More one-bedroom accommodation is needed ‘desperately’ and is the “emerging priority”, Mr Bakewell said.

Mr Bakewell said the council is also looking to improve specialist support available as part of its homeless service.

“We’ve got ambitions to operate the homeless service in a very different way,” he added.

The select committee called for a six-monthly update on the situation and also recommended more specialist support is developed for young homeless people.