Government Offices | Yorkshire and The Humber |

A complex of disused flats, which had featured in the Yorkshire Evening Post as an example of ‘the sordid underbelly of Leeds’, gave way to a new lease of life when Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber (GOYH) worked with the Local Authority to demolish the building and re-house rough sleepers.

West Mount Flats had stood vacant for some time and their close proximity to the city centre led to it becoming home to rough sleepers, possible street crime offenders and intravenous drug users who often entered the building and grounds to inject. The building was in a terrible state of disrepair with rooms littered with drugs paraphernalia and excrement.

Home to up to twenty rough sleepers on any one night, the priority for the both building’s owners and the Local Authority was to facilitate demolition of the property and the re-housing of the buildings inhabitants so that work could begin on redevelopment for the use of student flats. This process was being delayed by technicalities in planning paperwork at Leeds City Council.

GOYH SCIT brokered a solution through liaison with Leeds City Council planning department and the buildings owners; settling the planning disagreements and setting a date for demolishion work to begin.

We worked with SHELTER and West Yorkshire Police to put in place an operation to re-house the rough sleepers at West Mount. This involved providing transport from the building to the Housing Advice Centre and offering a hot breakfast. Seven Rough Sleepers were found alternative accommodation in the city; West Mount is now demolished.