Monmouth's Market Hall unsuitable for homeless accomodation

A market hall previously used as a night shelter is unsuitable for conversion to homeless accommodation, the councillor responsible has said. 

The Market Hall in Monmouth was used as a night shelter, run by the Churches in Monmouth Housing Group, before closing during the early stages of the 2020 Covid pandemic on health grounds. 

A petition, with 144 signatures, was presented to Monmouthshire County Council calling for the shelter to be reinstated. 

But Councillor Paul Griffiths, the Labour-led council’s cabinet member responsible for housing, said the move to close “shared space hostel style accommodation” during the pandemic also coincided with a Welsh Government desire to house people in “self contained accommodation”. 

The council now intends to improve the temporary accommodation it provides and recently approved plans to convert part of the former Severn

View older people’s residential home, in Chepstow, to housing for the homeless. 

He said homelessness has increased in Monmouthshire in recent years with spending on temporary accommodation increasing from £800,000 in 2021 to approximately £1.8 million at present, in part funded by the Welsh Government.  

In 2020, at any one time, the council provided temporary accommodation to 155 people and Cllr Griffiths said that is 216 at present. 

The Chepstow Castle and Larkfield councillor said the authority plans to purchase, lease and repurpose buildings to provide accommodation but said: “Do I think Monmouth Market Hall should be repurposed? I’m not convinced. It is currently designed for office space and the cost of refurbishment would be large scale and that investment would gain a better return elsewhere for a similar scale property in Monmouth town.” 

He also said he wanted to appeal to any landlords or property owners to come forward if they are interested in working with the council to provide accommodation. 

The cabinet member said he is wiling to meet with the churches housing group to discuss how they can work together to support homeless people in Monmouth. 

Conservative councillor for Shirenewton, Louise Brown, who had asked for the petition to be discussed by the full council when it was presented to a scrutiny committee in July thanked Cllr Griffiths for the committment to work with the churches group. 

But she said she was still concerned a “stop gap” is required especially during the winter and said some on the streets are either waiting for appointments or “concerned about rumours, whether true or not, of drug usage” at the council’s accommodation.