Manchester flats to help homeless families stay local: what residents need to know

By Munisha News Desk for munisha.co.uk

A block of flats in Wythenshawe is being converted into temporary accommodation for homeless families, with Manchester City Council saying the scheme is designed to keep people closer to their schools, relatives and support networks.

The property on Greenwood Road in Woodhouse Park has been acquired from registered housing provider Mosscare St Vincent’s. Once refurbished, it will provide 17 self-contained flats for families from Wythenshawe and south Manchester who need temporary housing.

Work is due to begin in summer 2026 and the council expects the refurbishment to be completed in December 2026.

Seventeen family flats on Greenwood Road

The Greenwood Road block will be refurbished throughout, including new kitchens and bathrooms in each flat. The council also plans to create two shared laundry rooms for residents.

Outside, the gardens at the rear of the building will be improved with raised bedding for residents’ use. The changes are intended to make the accommodation more suitable for families than emergency placements that can be further away from familiar services and routines.

The flats will be self-contained, meaning families will have their own private living space while they wait for a permanent settled tenancy. For households dealing with homelessness, that can reduce the disruption caused by moving into temporary accommodation, particularly where children are already attending local schools.

Support on site for families moving on

Manchester City Council said an accommodation team will be based on site to support families while they live at the Greenwood Road property.

That support is expected to focus on helping households move on as quickly as possible into permanent settled homes. The council said residents will be helped to become tenancy-ready, a term usually used for practical steps such as preparing for rent responsibilities, managing paperwork and sustaining a future tenancy.

Deputy Leader Cllr Tracey Rawlins said the city needed more temporary accommodation, especially council-owned accommodation.

“We’re doing a lot to support people so that they don’t become homeless in the first place,” she said. “But we’re also determined to increase our stock of quality temporary accommodation – especially in Wythenshawe and south Manchester where there has been a particular shortage – to prevent people who do end up experiencing homelessness from being uprooted from their social support networks.”

More council-owned temporary accommodation

The Greenwood Road project forms part of a wider push by Manchester City Council to increase publicly owned temporary accommodation across the city.

The council says the aim is to reduce the number of out-of-area placements. Those placements can mean families are housed away from the neighbourhoods where they previously lived, worked, studied or received care.

For families in housing crisis, distance can become a second pressure. A move across or outside the city may affect school attendance, childcare, health appointments and support from relatives. Keeping temporary accommodation closer to home is therefore a central part of the council’s stated approach.

The Wythenshawe project follows other recent proposals in Manchester. Plans have been brought forward to create temporary accommodation for more than 50 homeless families in Chorlton on the site of the derelict former office block Mauldeth House, subject to planning permission.

Another application seeks to transform the former Alexandra Park housing office into accommodation for 20 people who are currently experiencing homelessness.

December completion target

The Greenwood Road refurbishment is scheduled to start in summer 2026 and finish in December 2026. The council has not announced a move-in date in the source material, but the completion target indicates the flats could add to the city’s temporary accommodation supply before the end of the year.

Cllr Rawlins said using existing buildings is part of the council’s response to homelessness pressures.

“Imaginative use of existing properties, as in the case of the Greenwood Road flats, is part of the answer,” she said. “It’s also important that where people do find themselves in temporary accommodation, they are supported to find permanent settled homes and be tenancy-ready. We are providing this support.”

Source: Manchester City Council

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This article is based on Manchester City Council’s published details about the Greenwood Road temporary accommodation project.

Checks

• Confirmed the project location as Greenwood Road, Woodhouse Park, Wythenshawe.
• Checked the stated number of self-contained flats: 17.
• Checked the published refurbishment timeline: summer 2026 start and December 2026 completi...
• Separated confirmed council plans from wider housing context.

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Manchester City Council

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Manchester

Updated

2026-06-08 01:51

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Tracey Rawlins

#Greenwood Road#Manchester City Council#Manchester homelessness#Mosscare St Vincent’s#temporary accommodation#Woodhouse Park#Wythenshawe housing

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