A project to create flats for temporary housing at Foy House in Margate has been put out to tender this week.
The redevelopment of the long-term empty building will create eight self-contained 1 and 2 bedroom flats.
The council has published the tender papers to appoint a contractor to complete the development. The closing date for submissions is September 13.
Interested developers will find the details on the Kent Business Portal and on Contracts Finder.
The publication of the tender follows 18 months of work since the council bought the building from its previous owner, Orbit Housing, in November 2019.
Some £1.2million was allocated for the purchase and development, including contingency money.
The refurbished flats will provide temporary accommodation for people and families with urgent housing needs, who are being supported by the council.
These immediate needs can occur for a wide variety of reasons, such as fleeing domestic abuse, marital breakdown, losing a job or being unable to pay rent. The project will provide a safe and supported home, until new accommodation can be found.
Cllr Jill Bayford, Cabinet Member for Housing at Thanet District Council said: “I am delighted to see this project progress. It will breathe new life into a derelict building and support the regeneration of Margate High Street.
“Supporting people whose circumstances have left them without secure accommodation is rightly a priority for the council and is just one part of our overall strategy to support the housing needs of people in Thanet. It is important that we are able to provide supportive services when people most need help.”
The eight flats will be managed by the council, and tenants will be supported throughout their stay by a dedicated manager.
Thanet council has approximately 1,544 households on the housing register.
The list of immediate needs forgot the my feet are wet from the dinghy…
With up to 200 immigrants a day being bought our shores, all the councils in Kent need to get their fingers out and start providing more of the much needed accommodation.
It is a serious dereliction of public duty to be letting all the immigrants in and then not provide them with sufficient adequate housing.
Love a bit of irony…
The problem here is, the more you provide services for immigrants and homelss, the more of them you attract and the more other councils send their quota to you ending up with an area that becomes totally unatractive to anyone else.
Once Thanet was an vacation area that attacted the rich and succesful from London and the City and had extensive development of services for entertainment and education. Northdown Road in Cliftonville was a major high end shopping street in Kent. As the area declined in the 70’s with the advent of overseas vacations the accomodation faclities were used to house immigarants, language students and more recently the discharge from SE prisons and now illegal immigrants and Cliftonville and Ramsgate have become hotbeds for gang activities, drugs, human traficking and battles between illegal immigrants from opposing tribes in their own countries.
Providing more facilities to support these activites will drive the caring locals away and create a depressing community of demanding entitled people.
Totally agree – but why worry when working from home somewhere distant and popping into the Cecil Square office from time to time?
More small time thinking from a council that is out of it’s depth.
great comments , will they provide a dinghy berth in the harbour for our new residents ? ( just until they get the black bmw )
The council could buy 8 flats oon the open market, all of which are ex rtb and so in council buildings, a bit of a make over and ready to rent / give to the needy. Almost instant provision and they’d still have foy house to either sell or use for other purposes.
Will those getting to livemin these flats be paying their bills or will that be rent?
So farewell then the Creative Corridor and saving the High Street as a nexus for all that Turner Effect ? The more astute councils are reacting to the post-plague situation and established homeworking by reviewing their actual office needs – scope for social housing in Cecil Square or maybe studio spaces for all those creatives is too ‘idealisti’ – or what about Debenhams in Westwood Cross ( some ambitious councils have already set about such residentialisations) ? And there’s the SAGA site ripe for social housing – and bolstering those retails outlets ? You have to wonder whether Thanet has much idea of how to generate employment in a coherent fashion ? And who wants to live in what ought to be a thriving cafe culture milieu such as a pedestrianised Lower High Street ought to be ? But who needs a visitor economy ? Roll on the East Kent Combined and a decent economic strategy.