Chorlton offices to house homeless families

Temporary accommodation for 55 families will be created by Manchester City Council in a former NHS building off Nell Lane.

Subject to planning approval, the initiative will see Mauldeth House transformed into self-contained two-bedroom accommodation.

MCC acquired the 1.1 acre site, off Nell Lane in Chorlton Park ward, last month with the support of the Government’s Local Authority Housing Fund.

Mauldeth House has been empty for several years and is described by the council as becoming “a blight on the neighbourhood”.

The new accommodation will see families supported by an accommodation team based on site to help them move on as quickly as possible into permanent settled tenancies.

The local authority is seeking to increase its temporary accommodation stock across the city to reduce the number of out-of-area placements, with other projects including Mariana House, a former care home in Whalley Range, repurposed in November last year for single homeless people with mobility needs; the Poplars in Rusholme, a former council office turned into one-bed flats; and Fulmead, a former youth justice office in Cheetham ward.

Both public and private sector are pushing projects forward to address homelessness, with February seeing the opening of the 40-home Embassy Village, a team effort across multiple businesses and organisations.

Deputy council leader Cllr Joanna Midgley said: “Mauldeth House is a great example of how we can put derelict properties to good use to benefit those experiencing homelessness (in this case families) as well as making our neighbourhood look better.

“We are tackling homelessness on many fronts, the most important one being prevention, but we also need an increased supply of good quality temporary accommodation within the city so that if people do become homeless they are not uprooted from their social support networks – this is especially difficult for families with children.

“One of the ways we are doing this is through the innovative use of existing sites whether they are council owned or we are able to acquire them as in the case of Mauldeth House.”