Author: Janice Higgins

19 charities call for ‘triple-lock’ to end rough sleeping after COVID-19

Posted on

Nineteen influential charity sector organisations working to end homelessness presented a joint plan to the Scottish Government based around three key asks that experts and academics believe could permanently end rough sleeping and destitution in Scotland as the country emerges from the pandemic.

The Collective, named Everyone Home, includes many household names and respected organisations working to end homelessness in all parts of the country. Together, they have agreed a ‘triple-lock’ of measures to protect the progress that has been made and underpin next steps.

Patrick McKay, Chair of Homeless Network Scotland and Operations Director, Turning Point Scotland said: “The majority of people and organisations in Scotland that care about homelessness agree that the Scottish Government’s Ending Homelessness Together Plan is the right approach, and we were making progress. However, the onset of this pandemic demanded a rapid response to keep people safe. Since March we have managed to accommodate and support all those who wanted to be indoors, including people with no recourse to public funds such as people seeking asylum in Scotland. Throughout, local and national government, charities, health and housing associations have worked together.

“It is now imperative to secure that progress. The pandemic will have a disproportionate impact on people who experience all types of disadvantage, potentially driving up homelessness. By implementing the measures outlined in this plan, Scotland has a unique window to end rough sleeping and mitigate the impact of all forms of homelessness.”

To help set out a way forward in local and national efforts to tackle homelessness now and in the future the 19 organisations involved in the Collective have agreed priorities and set out a range of approaches summarised as:

 prioritise prevention, create as much housing capacity as we can now and make a long-term commitment to increase the supply of homes for social rent
 permanently prevent a return to previous levels of rough sleeping in all areas
 no evictions into homelessness, the end of avoidable evictions and the threat of illegal evictions.

The Collective will also present a framework for offering support and guidance to local authorities, private landlords, tenants, housing associations as well as a framework to support rapid scaling of Housing First across all areas in Scotland. This will provide learning, guidance and tools for quality assurance, support and cost implications. The 19 organisations that are members of the Collective will continue to develop and refine plans for ensuring an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions are lifted.

You can read our joint-plan and support our urgent efforts to get everyone home at www.everyonehome.scot

Join in on social media at #EveryoneHome

Housing First Annual Check-Up Published

Posted on

Homeless Network Scotland have published the first annual check-up report on Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder. Martin Gavin, Head of External Relations, picks out the key points.

Reaching the first birthday of the Pathfinder designed to scale up Housing First across six local authority areas in five partnerships, is an important milestone. With 252 tenancies created the programme is being watched with interest from other parts of the British Isles, as well as Europe, the USA and Australia. Scotland is widely, and rightly, viewed as a leader in implementing Housing First.

In Finland, the Housing First model has contributed to the only downward homelessness rate in Europe, with little or no rough sleeping in their capital city. Juha Kaakinen, CEO of Finland’s Y-Foundation, would have been the keynote speaker at this year’s conference. Instead Juha will join us for a webinar today at 2pm, taking questions and talking about their experiences. Commenting on Scotland’s progress in our first annual Housing First Check Up report, published today, Juha says: “In this work we need beacons of hope like the Pathfinder. The work done in Scotland to upscale Housing First is an inspirational example for many countries.”

The moment that is captured in this quote is built on a solid foundation laid by those innovators who have been sizing up the potential of Housing First for more than a decade in Scotland and supporting tenants to build and live their lives in those intervening years. 

The knowledge that people were spending too much time in temporary accommodation has prompted a focus on rapid rehousing leading to all councils submitting Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans to the Scottish Government. With Housing First sitting as part of this wider approach the focus of the Pathfinder is to challenge and change our current processes in the short and long term, creating new approaches and gradually leaving behind the old; a process of transition that Pathfinders continue press ahead with during the current crisis.

Housing First is still working thanks to the incredible dedication and expertise of support providers up and down the country. And not only in the Pathfinder consortia, also in those council areas testing and operating their own local schemes.

The substantial international evidence behind Housing First points to a tenancy sustainment rate of 80-90%. Tenancy sustainment here has stayed above 90% for the full programme so far. Today’s Housing First Check Up Report also reveals that Edinburgh (98%) and Glasgow (92%) report the highest levels of local tenancy sustainment. A quarter of tenants have now been in their own home for more than a year (58) and 21 people have been at home for more than 18 months.

The time it takes to get someone into a home is also falling. Stirling (-64%) and Aberdeen/shire (-56%) saw the largest reductions of the Pathfinder areas, with Aberdeen/shire showing excellent progress in achieving the 28-day target, with 39% of people moving into their homes within one month. In Dundee we see a steady, sustained increase in new tenancies starting over the period of the report, along with a 41% fall in repeat homelessness.

The report also tells us where challenges exist. In the past year, four people have returned to homelessness, each person will have their own story and we want to understand them all. Sadly, eight tenants have died, with long-term prison sentences accounting for a further six ended tenancies. For the majority of our tenants, underlying health conditions and often a lifetime of multiple severe disadvantage means the odds are stacked against them. This makes the achievement of the 92% (as of March 2020) that remain in their own homes, supported by amazing staff, even more remarkable.

The Pathfinder is also helping us to better understand the impact that scaling up across Scotland will have on this success rate, with all 32 local authorities soon rolling out locally focused Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans. The approach must work for 500 as well as it does for 50.

New Guidance on Housing Allocations

Posted on

Scottish Government and COSLA have issued non-statutory guidance for local authorities, social landlords and private rented sector landlords to help them meet duties and legal requirements during the coronavirus pandemic.

While recognising the range of challenges of allocating housing during the Covid-19 crisis, the guidance also provides practical considerations and takes the strong position that:

“… delays to allocations risk the safety of some of our most vulnerable groups and will create a backlog within the housing sector which will slow progress towards a recovery. It is crucial to ensure empty properties continue to be allocated throughout this period wherever possible. Where issues are identified strong partnership working across the housing sector and government should aim to address these issues and find practical solutions.”

You can read the guidance here.

Equalities, Homelessness & Covid-19

Posted on

Maggie Brunjes, Homeless Network Scotland’s Chief Executive, looks at an unfair pandemic and the reasons why we are today publishing a new framework* to help redress this across homelessness policy and services.

Already we know that the risk and impact of Covid-19 is not distributed equally. That it is having a disproportionate impact on people at the sharp end of social, income and health inequalities. And that this has a geographical pattern, which means some communities will be more affected too.

An interesting article last week from the Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence discussed that those most damaged by austerity will also be most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic – including young people, frontline workers and women. The Improvement Service also published an important summary of issues and potential impact of Covid-19 on those living in socio-economic disadvantage. An official inquiry has been launched by Public Health England to investigate why people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by the virus. While this week, the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities & Human Rights Committee launched an inquiry on the impact of the pandemic on equalities and human rights.

The overarching priority for those preventing and responding to homelessness during Covid-19 is to enable everyone to be in a safe place where social distancing, self-isolation and shielding is possible. With so many remarkable response plans now in motion right across Scotland, this might be the right time to fine tune those responses – and the ones still to come – to be as sensitive to inequality as they can be.

With this knowledge, we have taken some time to consider the additional impacts of Covid-19 on homelessness in Scotland, through the lens of ‘protected’ groups – those of us more likely to be more affected by already being at a disadvantage in other ways.

If at a broader societal level we are now being encouraged in Scotland to gear up to live alongside this virus in a ‘new normal’ over the coming months, then we hope this framework can assist and signpost local authority, housing, health and third sector partners. And act as a useful guide to help direct local policy, activity and resource during the pandemic and in its aftermath.

Special thanks to a high-calibre panel of ‘expert reviewers’ who considered this framework from every angle and provided feedback to help us get it into a shape ready to share. It remains a live document, so if you spot any gaps or improvements – please do let us know.

* View the framework here: ‘Homelessness & Covid-19: An overview of equality considerations arising from Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its impact on homelessness in Scotland’ (v. 27 April 2020)

Human Trafficking & Homelessness

Posted on

There are grim links between homelessness, human trafficking and modern slavery. The take-away message from Police Scotland at a Homeless Network Scotland members event before the Covid-19 outbreak was that a ‘false alarm is better than no alarm’. This advice rings even clearer now, with the pandemic exacerbating an already urgent situation for people affected or at risk.

There are new concerns that people trafficked into businesses that have closed due to Covid-19 (e.g. nail bars and car washes) could be forced into different work, or ‘let go’ if their trafficker can no longer make money from them. People often have no ID, papers or money and are at increased risk of homelessness, rough sleeping, destitution and exploitation including sexual exploitation. Homelessness agencies are being asked to spot the signs, to share information and continue to strengthen relationships across homelessness, trafficking, destitution and refugee services.

HELP NUMBERS:

To get advice or report a concern contact the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 or advise the person that you are concerned about to phone this number. They can speak confidentially without giving their name.

TARA (Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance) work with women over 18 who have been trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. Phone 0141 275 7724.

Migrant Help: Work with people over 18 who have been trafficked for any purpose other than commercial sexual exploitation. Phone 0141 8847900 /out of Hours 0141 2128553.

If you’re in Glasgow, there is a group linked directly to homelessness services, contact Joy Andrew at Restore Glasgow on joyrestore18@gmail.com.