Prospective social housing tenants in Croydon could be required to live in the borough for three years before being offered accommodation, under proposals currently up for public consultation.

Earlier this year, Croydon Council's Labour administration announced plans to triple the residency qualification for its housing waiting list, in a bid to tackle rising demand for temporary accommodation.

The proposals, which were approved at a cabinet meeting in March, also included a commitment to prioritise homeless applicants to the waiting list - but only if they "respond to help offered by the council to prevent their homelessness".

Following an initial online consultation last month, the council launched a formal public consultation on the proposals on Monday. It will run until September 5.

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The consultation document reads: "We want to ensure that applicants for social housing have a close association with Croydon through their length of residence in the borough.

"Social housing is a scarce resource, and we think it is important to make sure it is available to local people."

The current requirement of one year residency to qualify for the housing register "is not long enough to prove a close association with Croydon," according to the proposals.

A number of exemptions to the residency qualification already exist, including in the cases of recently discharged members of the armed forces, bereaved partners of servicemen or servicewomen, and vulnerable elderly people.

Further exemptions proposed in the consultation document include verified rough sleepers, young people leaving the care of Croydon Council upon turning 18, and prisoners whose last known address was within the borough.

Croydon Council £5.4m on temporary accommodation in the 2015/16 financial year, up from £4.8m last year 2014-15 and £2.4m more than four years ago.

As of March this year, the council was housing nearly 3,000 families in different forms of temporary accommodation.

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Jad Adams, chairman of Croydon-based homeless charity Nightwatch, said earlier this year that he had seen a shift in the type of people becoming homeless, due to landlords evicting tenants to develop their properties.

Mr Adams said: “People who are perfectly good tenants who paid their rent and always behaved themselves are being evicted so that properties can be developed.

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“That is the main cause of new homelessness in Croydon now.”

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