SWANSEA Council spent more than £4,000 a night putting homeless people and those at risk of being homeless up in bed and breakfast accommodation last year.

The £1.5m expenditure in 2020-21 was more than treble the £472,658 figure in 2019-20, reflecting a multi-pronged approach to give people a roof over their heads during the Covid pandemic.

The authority has clawed much of the money back from the Welsh Government but this Covid hardship funding for councils ends on March 31.

One person stayed in bed and breakfast accommodation in Swansea for 545 nights but it was, according to the council, an exceptional case.

The figures provided were in response to a Freedom of Information request from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which asked for bed and breakfast, guesthouse and hotel costs for 2019-20, 2020-21, and the first six months of 2021-22.

The council said figures weren’t available yet for the first six months of 2021-22, but went on to reveal that the highest cost of accommodating an individual or family in all types of temporary accommodation in 2019-20 and 2020-21 was £27,250.

The longest stay for a family in bed and breakfast, guesthouse and hotel accommodation was 14 nights.

There were 103 people being put up in such accommodation in Swansea as of November 2021.

It is expected that temporary accommodation costs for those in need will also be higher in 2021-22 than historically.

A council spokesman said the authority was committed to providing homeless people with a place to stay, and that bed and breakfasts played an important role.

“It is only a starting point and, in the vast majority of cases, those who’ve needed a bed and breakfast are quickly found suitable permanent homes with support appropriate to their needs,” he said.

The council has set up two housing projects which support people with complex needs as well as providing a roof over their head.

The spokesman added:

“The demand for bed and breakfasts is a reflection of rising need for services during the pandemic, particularly for people with mental health issues, substance misuse, a rise in domestic abuse and relationship breakdowns and, of course, the inevitable economic impacts facing many individuals and families.”

Councils get back a proportion of their homelessness expenditure via housing benefit.

In 2019-20, Swansea Council reclaimed £161,293 of its £472,658 outlay this way.

In 2020-21, it got back £341,186 of its £1.5m expenditure via housing benefit – and was also handed £800,725 by the Welsh Government.

This meant the net cost to the authority was £360,693, not a vast difference to the £311,365 in 2019-20.

The Welsh Government confirmed the local authority hardship fund was ending next month, but said it had allocated more than £190m for homelessness prevention and housing support in Wales in its draft budget for 2022-23 – plus £310m for social housing.

A spokeswoman said its housing strategy for those in need had helped 17,000 people since the started of the pandemic.

She added:

“We have made £10m available to local authorities for the costs they would have previously claimed from the hardship fund, as we move towards a rapid re-housing approach.”