Cambridge city council’s fraud team are leading a crackdown on illegal council home subletting, a trend which is contributing to the city’s housing problem.

The fraud investigators have discovered five sub-let council-owned properties and one housing association property in the last few months. There was also an instance of a home being left empty, while the tenant moved to another city. These homes were reallocated to new tenants.

None of the tenants have been prosecuted, but the council is “conducting full criminal investigations” and seeking legal advice to determine whether the individuals have committed an offence. The sub-let and abandoned homes were identified thanks to an anonymous tip-off.

The city council commented that the problem is “real and immediate”, and that Cambridge’s homeless are being deprived because of it. Catherine Smart, Executive Councillor for housing, added: “People who cheat like this are not cheating the council, as it still gets the rent. They are cheating other people in Cambridge who are desperate to get rehoused.”

There is a large and increasing demand for affordable housing in Cambridge. Last year 229 people were found sleeping rough in Cambridge. This constitutes a significant increase from 183 individuals, the number recorded in 2011-2012.

The council has just accepted a plan to build 275 new homes near Babraham Road, on the southern edge of Cambridge. Councillors have praised the project, developed by Hill Residential, for the significant amount of social and affordable housing it contains: 40 per cent of homes will fall into this category. The developers stated that their project will “deliver much needed affordable housing in Cambridge.”

With substantial reductions in governmental aid, national and local charities are shouldering a heavy portion of the burden. Cambridge-based charities such as Jimmy’s provide short-term emergency accommodation for homeless men and women in Cambridge, while Wintercomfort provides free breakfast and showers for individuals who are sleeping rough.

A number of student-led initiatives are attempting to alleviate the hardship of homelessness. Streetbite organises groups of students to bring food, hot drinks and conversation to people living on the street, while Cambridge RAG is donating some of the money raised through its activities this year to the Cambridge City Foodbank.

The government has recently provided Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI) – a social care and health charity – with a £144,000 grant to spend on helping homeless immigrants in Cambridge.

CRI suggests that there has been a significant increase in immigrants sleeping rough. They believe that immigrants are particularly vulnerable to becoming homeless because they are not aware of their rights to access welfare and accommodation.

The grant will fund welfare centres and patrols of CRI workers who will be able to communicate in several languages.

“There’s a lot of stigma and incorrect stereotypes associated with [homelessness], which means people are often automatically excluded from opportunities that the rest of us take for granted”, says Jen Durrant of Streetbite.

“[T]he lack of affordable housing, the lack of funding for support services and the impossibility of getting a job when you don’t have a secure address
all mean that the odds are stacked against you.”