The cost of putting homeless people up in bed and breakfast accommodation increased nearly thirteenfold in Carmarthenshire in the first year of the Covid pandemic.
The county council spent £718,358 on bed and breakfast costs in 2020-21 in response to a nationwide drive to give people a roof over their head. The corresponding figure for 2019-20, before the coronavirus ran amok, was £58,288. However, the Welsh Government subsidised the 2020-21 bill with a grant of £690,287.
In the first six months of 2021-22, the council spent £228,451 on bed and breakfast accommodation and clawed £200,772 back from Cardiff Bay. The figures follow a Freedom of Information request about support for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
