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Sheffield Council has booked 150 bed spaces at hotels for the next two years to house a rising number of homeless people.

The authority said booking so far in advance at an agreed nightly rate will allow it to better manage costs, save officer time and provide more certainty for those living there.

It comes as its use of hotels for temporary accommodation rocketed since Covid-19 and as of December last year, 173 households were homed in hotels.

As the number of bed spaces needed nightly has grown, the number of hotels expanded across a wide range of locations – putting more pressure on staff to source, book, pay and visit the sites and support those housed there.

Sheffield Council has booked 150 bed spaces at hotels for the next two years to house a rising number of homeless people. Picture: Adobe Stock

The move was approved in this week’s housing committee meeting.

In the meeting, councillor Ben Curran said he recently supported a homeless family who were housed in several different temporary accommodation sites and said hopefully the new system would be less disruptive than what they experienced.

He said: “As if being evicted from your home wasn’t traumatic enough, and two of their three kids have special educational needs.

“I saw the difficulties they were going through from going from one place to another. All the temporary accommodation they had was quite nice but they were moving from one place to another then another and when they finally got to their final destination the council was still questioning how long they would be there.”

Graph showing how Sheffield Council's use of hotels for temporary accommodation has rocketed since Covid-19.

Coun Penny Baker added: “I’m really sad to have to support this.

“Some of us were around that day about 12 years ago when we had nobody in temporary accommodation. It was a fantastic feeling. We are so long away from that now.

“As it has been said by Coun Curran, people in these difficult positions are very vulnerable and taking away having to wait for a room to be allocated and [the uncertainty] is showing respect to those individuals.”

Council officers said the authority aimed to end use of hotels for temporary accommodation within the next five years unless in emergencies.

They added it would also give the council more control to ensure the sites meet the needs of those living there including by designating separate accommodation for males and females and providing access to basic cooking facilities.

Sheffield Council to strike two year deal with hotels as homelessness rockets