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Homeless people are being drafted in to refurbish some of Leeds's derelict homes
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Homeless people are being drafted in to refurbish some of Leeds's derelict homes.
The Canopy Housing Project will then rent the homes back to the people who helped spruce them up.
Ten council houses in the east of the city are the first to be done up by the volunteers.
Leeds City councillor Les Carter said: "These properties would cost the council a small fortune to repair to a proper standard and, normally, we would seek to sell them and put the money back into social housing in the area.
"But thanks to this partnership with Canopy, these properties will be brought back into use for the benefit of local people while also reducing the number of people without a home.
"As well as providing affordable housing, this partnership helps strengthen the local community by housing people who will value and care for their home, because they helped refurbish it in the first place."
East North East Leeds Homes is covering half the cost of materials and one of the properties has already been earmarked as a possible base for Canopy to use while volunteers and tenants work on the other properties.
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