Newport car park could be leased out to provide supported housing.

A DECISION will be made next week whether to lease Hill Street car park in the city centre to housing association Linc Cymru.

If the lease is approved, then 12 Zed Pod modular flats will be built on the car park.

For the supported housing project, Linc Cymru has been awarded £920,000 from the Welsh Government as part of its phase two homelessness funding.

A report recommends a 250-year lease of around £180,000, subject to an independent evaluation and a condition that it has a restricted use for affordable housing.

The council says the car park would be closed while work to construct the flats takes place but part of it will return to its original use as a car park once the flats have been built.

The council website says:

“During the pandemic, the Welsh Government has required councils to offer accommodation to anyone who is homeless.

“The council’s housing team and its partners have worked tirelessly to ensure people have been housed, particularly those living on the streets. This has been very successful with the majority of people taking up the offer of shelter and accessing other services.

“Many people who were previously sleeping rough have moved into temporary accommodation and are engaging with support services for the first time. For some this has been life-changing, and they are moving on to more permanent accommodation.

“However, this has meant increased demand for temporary and permanent housing, so a number of new schemes are progressing as part of the phase two programme.”

A decision will be made by the deputy leader and cabinet member for city services Cllr Roger Jeavons and Cllr Majid Rahman, the cabinet member for assets on Friday (March 12).