Cruise ships for homeless won't be prisons

Councillor says Shelter's objection is "nonsense"

Suggestions that refugees and people who are homeless living on cruise ships would be like living in prison are “nonsense,” a Torridge district councillor says.

At a meeting in December, Cllr David Brenton (Labour, Bideford South) put forward a motion to consider working with neighbouring local authorities use derelict cruise ships to house people.

Cllr Brenton said that “radical measures” were needed to tackle homelessness in Devon. Nearly 4,000 people in Devon and Cornwall alone were recorded as homeless in 2022.

The council approved the motion in principle, and a report will be submitted to the community & resources committee at Torridge on Monday [23 January].

Charlie Trew, head of policy at Shelter UK, slammed the cruise-ship idea, saying that the “deplorable” plan would see people living in “prison-like conditions.”

But Cllr Brenton rejects this view. “That’s pure nonsense because people pay thousands of pounds for cruise trips,” he said. “They’re certainly not like prison ships; I’ve been on one. Why would they be like prison ships? There’s no reason for that at all.”

Shelter’s Devon service lead Stuart Francis-Dubois would prefer to see Westminster increase housing benefit to match inflation.

“It is the dire shortage of affordable homes that is tipping so many families into homelessness and trapping them in temporary accommodation,” he suggests.

“We urge Torridge council to drop this appalling proposal and work with us to help people find, or keep hold of, a safe and secure home.  

“To protect people from homelessness across the country, we are also calling on the government to unfreeze housing benefit – currently stuck at 2020 levels – so that more people can afford to pay local rents. But to solve the housing emergency for good, we have to build more good quality social homes with rents pegged to local wages.”