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Emergency cabin accommodation in Cornwall ready for residents

Cornwall Council Cabins outside New County Hall, TruroCornwall Council
Twenty-one cabins in Truro are ready for residents

Cabins which will be temporary homes for people in need of emergency accommodation are ready for their first residents.

The 21 units outside New County Hall, in Truro, are part of Cornwall Council's plans to tackle a shortage of temporary housing.

The cabins are self-contained, single-berth and have cooking and shower facilities.

The council said the units provided "safe and reliable accommodation".

Cornwall Council Cabins outside New County Hall, TruroCornwall Council
The council says it wants to move away from hotels to accommodate people in need of emergency and temporary homes

It will be the first temporary accommodation site to open, with work on a similar scheme ongoing at Rosewarne car park in Camborne.

The council said it wanted to end the use of short-term hotel solutions, which "do not offer security" for people in need of temporary and emergency accommodation.

It said it wanted to offer a place to stay "without fear of short-notice eviction".

Cornwall Council Interior of a cabinCornwall Council
The cabins are self-contained, single-berth and have cooking and shower facilities

Councillor Olly Monk, the council's cabinet member for housing, explained the cabins give the authority "space to implement more long-term solutions".

He said: "These temporary schemes have been hugely beneficial to those in need during the pandemic and now we're expanding them as one way to give people safe and reliable accommodation while we work to find them long-term, settled, places to live."

In June, about 130 people living in emergency accommodation in hotels were moved out to make way for paying customers.

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