Author: Janice Higgins

Homelessness in Scotland: 2020-21 statistics

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Released today Tuesday 29 June, findings for that period show:

  • There were 33,792 applications for homelessness assistance – a decrease of 3,251 (9%) compared with 2019/20
  • There were 27,571 households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness – a decrease of 4,010 (13%) compared to 2019/20
  • While the number of applications fell, there was also a reduction in the number of cases closed. As a result, the number of open homelessness cases at 31 March 2021 reached 25,226, a 10% increase compared to 31 March 2020. This peaked at 27,058 as at 30 September 2020
  • There were 13,097 households in temporary accommodation at 31 March 2021 – a 12% increase compared to 11,665 at 31 March 2020. This reached a peak of 14,151 at 30 September 2020
  • The most common reasons for making an application were ‘Asked to leave’ (27% vs 24% the previous year), ‘Dispute within the household / relationship: non-violent (22% vs 19% the previous year) and ‘Dispute within the household: violent or abusive’ (14% vs 13% the previous year)
  • There was a notable decrease in households becoming homeless from a private rented tenancy – a drop of 2,161 (42%) from 5,145 to 2,984. 11% of households assessed as homeless in this period gave this as their previous accommodation type, compared to 16% in the same period in 2020. This may be due to a reduction in the number of evictions due to emergency coronavirus legislation temporarily extending eviction notice periods
  • There was a 44% reduction in households assessed as homeless in Edinburgh in 2020/21 compared to 2019/20, from 3,402 to 1,912. This was largely due to a 67% reduction from a private rented tenancy (264 in 2020/21 compared to 802 in 2019/20) compared to 42% nationally. In addition, Edinburgh also experienced a decrease of those becoming homeless from either ‘parental / family home / relatives’ or ‘friends / partners’ of 35% (from 1,532 to 1,002) compared to a national increase of 7%
  • Homelessness applications that closed in 2020/21 that used temporary accommodation spent 199 days in temporary accommodation on average.  This increased from 187 days the previous year
  • There were 605 cases of households not being offered temporary accommodation in 2020/21 – a fall of 87% (from 4,590) compared to last year. 525 of these were in Edinburgh
  • 80% of homeless households (18,313 out of 22,967) secured settled accommodation in 2020/21, increasing from 64% in 2002/03, and a drop from 83% last year
  • It took 248 days on average from assessment to closure in 2020/21 for cases assessed as homeless – an increase from 225 in 2019/20
  • 58% of main applicants were male; 62% were aged 25-49; 70% were single person households; and 87% were of White ethnicity

Full report can be read here: https://www.gov.scot/news/homelessness-statistics-2020-21/

5-minute briefing: the unsuitable accommodation order

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This week, the covid-related exemptions in the order were extended again to September 2021. The order has been at the forefront of housing and homelessness policy due to the progressive outcomes for people it intends to achieve, balanced with the additional housing pressures on local councils as a consequence of the pandemic.

About the Order

In September 2019, the Scottish Government’s programme for government committed to legislate to extend the Unsuitable Accommodation Order to all homeless households in the parliamentary year and that it would come into force within the parliamentary term. The order was previously limited to households with dependent children and/or with a pregnant household member.

This followed a key recommendation from the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group in 2018 and a Scottish Government consultation on improving temporary accommodation standards that ran during the summer of 2019.

In May 2020, the Homeless Person’s (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2020 – commonly referred to as the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, or ‘UAO’ – makes the most significant change to the Order since it first came into force in 2004.

It means that no household can be placed in temporary accommodation for more than 7 days if:

  • It is not wind and watertight, meet minimum safety standards, or is not suitable for occupation by a homeless household.
  • It is in a different local authority area and/or too far from the health and education services people use, or not in the locality of a place of employment (considering reasonable public transport links).
  • It lacks adequate bedrooms, toilet and personal washing facilities for the exclusive use of the household.
  • It does not have the use of adequate cooking facilities and the use of a living room.
  • It is not usable by the household for 24 hours a day.
  • It is not suitable for visitation by a child who is not a member of the household and in respect of whom a member of the household has parental rights.

In practical terms, unsuitable temporary accommodation usually means B&B accommodation, hostels, shelters and – with significantly increased use during the pandemic – commercial hotels. A local authority placing a homeless household in accommodation not meeting these requirements for more than 7 days will be a breach of the Order.

Are there any exemptions?

There are a number of exemptions to the Order in relation to particular homelessness situations, particular types of accommodation, and the particular situation in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic.  These exemptions include situations where:

  • The household became homeless as a result of an emergency situation such as fire, flood, or other disaster.
  • The household has been offered accommodation that is suitable but requests the accommodation that does not meet the requirements.
  • The accommodation is used wholly or mainly to provide temporary accommodation to people who have left their homes as a result of domestic abuse and is managed by an organisation which (i) is not a public authority or a local authority; and (ii) does not trade for profit.
  • The local authority has secured that the accommodation has been made available and services relating to health, childcare or family welfare are provided to people accommodated there.
  • the accommodation made available (i) is shared tenancy accommodation which is shared, small-scale and of a good standard; (ii) consists of community hosting where the homeless household stays for a short period of time in a spare bedroom in the home of a community member; or (iii) is rapid access accommodation which offers emergency temporary accommodation.

And covid-related exemptions:

The restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic led the Scottish Government to put in place a series of exemptions to allow local authorities to provide accommodation during the crisis without breaching the Order. 

These exemptions were due to expire at the end of January 2021, but the Scottish Government, in consultation with local authorities, created a further extension until the end of June 2021 – and then extended again in May 2021 to September 2021.

The exemptions are when:

  • A person in the household has symptoms of coronavirus and the household requires to isolate.
  • The accommodation is required to provide temporary accommodation to ensure that a distance of 2 metres can be maintained between a member of the household and a person who is not a member of the household, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
  • A local authority is unable to make a suitable placement as a result of the impact of coronavirus on the supply of temporary accommodation in the area, provided that where a household includes a child or a pregnant woman the household is not placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than seven days.

In these circumstances, and to 30 September 2021, it is not a breach of the order if a local authority provides temporary accommodation that is considered unsuitable. A household placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation for more than seven days will be recorded as a breach of the UAO.

The Scottish Housing Regulator has also confirmed it will take account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic when it assesses local authorities’ performance in complying with the UAO.

Bookings now open for our Learning Lounge for May to July 2021

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First up is Tools, Tips Techniques for Involving People in your Service: an online session for both frontline practitioners and managers.

Often individuals and communities who don’t have a common, collective voice and are typically underrepresented in consultation and the development of services.

This interactive course looks in depth at:

• Considerations when engaging those who use our services

• Practical tools for engagement

• Common barriers to engagement and how to avoid them

• How to create a safe and friendly environment for participation

• Creating equal relationships and boundaries

• When and where? Opportunities for engagement are everywhere, how to find them

Date 10 May 2021 | 1 x 3 hour session, 10am -1pm | Fee HNS Member £60 / Non Member £78

Book here: https://homelessnetwork.scot/learning-lounge/

Are you All In For Change?

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All in for Change (AIFC) is a programme led by a ‘Change Team’ who each have personal experience of homelessness and together are committed to ending it. As part of a National Conversation starting today the Change Team are speaking to, and learning from, people who see first-hand how policy and operational decisions affect real lives. The responses received will inform future conversations, both internally and when speaking with decision makers.

Jade Wallace has been part of the AIFC programme since it started, and said:

“At times, change can seem slow, and I think it is important to reflect and remind ourselves that slowly but surely a difference is being made.

“For so long homelessness has been viewed as solely a housing issue and I think this is a great opportunity to engage with and inform as many people as possible, to hear different experiences, viewpoints and share what we know works.”

The Change Team was established in late 2019 and they have contributed directly to decision making with a permanent presence at Scotland’s Homelessness Prevention & Strategy Group (HPSG). There are four New Directions that guide the team’s work. These reflect Scotland’s high level Ending Homelessness Together Plan, and they are People First; No Wrong Door; At Home; Good Vibes.

Taking these four New Directions as a guide the team are asking the following questions.

  • Has progress been made in achieving these?
  • If so, where and how are they being achieved?
  • If not, in what ways could they be achieved?
  • What gets in the way of them being achieved?

Jade Wallace added:

“The New Direction I like best is ‘At Home’. I truly believe that settled, secure, mainstream housing provided quickly is the best possible solution for people experiencing homelessness. I fully support the Housing First model, and I have seen first-hand the multiple benefits of ensuring people are provided with a secure home when they need it.”

The quickest way to get involved in the National Conversation is to complete the quick online survey, adding your experiences to our growing knowledge base, or even sharing the link with someone else. Other ways to take part are by downloading our conversation starter and having a chat with someone you work with, or support, and by joining a workshop led by the Change Team and talking with others to help grow change.

The Change Team are supported by partner organisations, Cyrenians, Frontline Network, Homeless Network Scotland and the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) and is represented on the Scottish Government’s Homelessness Prevention & Strategy Group (HPSG).

For more information visit the All In For Change page.

Housing First branches out from April

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Doug Gibson has been involved in the adoption and scaling up of Housing First through his role as programme manager for the Housing First Pathfinder. As the approach extends across most council areas in Scotland starting from this week, he considers how it could help end large scale homelessness for good.

When I visited Finland in early 2020, I was struck by the confidence and pragmatism of this small nation, the only European country where homelessness is falling. It’s hardly surprising that the policy underpinning that success, Housing First, has more and more fans here in Scotland where the policy is well established, and also in the other GB nations and regions.

For decades the problem was viewed as intractable, a stubborn feature of metropolitan life in cities around the world, including those in the richest countries like ours. In attempting to resolve homelessness all manner of schemes and solution were broached and implemented, short of providing people with a home. The alternate approach of the Fins is simple. In 2007 they adopted Housing First as the anchor for a wider political vision to address the toughest experiences of homelessness as part of a rapid rehousing approach.

Finland ‘s enviable record since can be actively attributed to their adoption of the Housing First model, a system pioneered in the USA that is evidence based, compassionate and abandons notions of blame or deserving.  There is now an overwhelming body of international evidence showing that, with close fidelity to the Housing First principles, most tenants are likely to stay housed – and feel benefit in many other ways too.

In Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder, which operates across five areas, the approach has delivered 87 percent housing retention rates in the first two years of the programme. This statistic – up there with the best international comparisons – tees up a range of benefits for both individuals and society as we begin to mainstream the policy across the country in this, the third and final year of the Pathfinder.

It improves health outcomes and decreases contact with community justice, in turn reducing A&E admissions and improving cost-effectiveness of service delivery. It is replacing chaos with support and temporary accommodation with permanent and there have been no evictions out of more than 450 tenancies created.

Many people who have taken up a tenancy through the programme have typically struggled in life, following adverse childhood experiences, negotiating multiple challenges and obstacles along the way such as trauma, addiction, poor mental health or physical disability and other forms of severe multiple disadvantage.

Estimates suggest that more than 800,000 adults in Scotland have experienced all three of the indicators of severe multiple disadvantage: homelessness, substance dependency and offending. Homelessness is the most common of these when viewed over an adult’s lifetime and a study for the Scottish Government in 2018 states that at least eight percent of the Scottish population had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. When you consider this percentage also represents the entire population of Scotland within the UK, it is clear why the issue matters to us all.

If finding answers to society’s toughest problems is the prize then Housing First is an attractive, integrated solution. In recent years in Scotland, more so since the pandemic began, resolving homelessness has resulted in regular co-operation and an acknowledgment that solving this problem is not impossible, but will take time. We must trust the evidence that says if we stay the course Scotland could be the other country in Europe where homelessness is falling.