Maggie Brünjes honoured with Heriot-Watt university degree for leadership in advancing solutions to homelessness

On 20 June 2025, Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Heriot-Watt University at a ceremony on its Edinburgh campus. The doctorate recognises her leadership in advancing evidence-based, collaborative solutions to homelessness in Scotland.

 

For over 25 years, Maggie has championed transformative approaches to homelessness. Since 2010, as Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, she has led the national network uniting organisations to deliver innovative solutions and advocate for a Scotland where everyone has a home. During that time she has co-founded impactful initiatives such as Housing First Scotland (2016), the UK-wide Centre for Homelessness Impact (2018), the Everyone Home Collective (2020) and Fair Way Scotland (2022). As a member of the Minister-appointed Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, Maggie helped shape Scotland’s national plan to end homelessness and continues to influence policy through national frameworks.

 

(left to right): Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, Heriot-Watt University; Janice Higgins, Head of Corporate Services, Homeless Network Scotland; Dr Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive, Homeless Network Scotland; Jackie Erdman, Chair of Homeless Network Scotland; Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Heriot-Watt University.

Accepting the award, Maggie said: “I am deeply honoured by this recognition from Heriot-Watt University, whose Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research leads global efforts to address housing disadvantage and social inequality, with their relentless pursuit of knowledge directing transformative change in Scotland, the UK and beyond.

“This award reflects the dedication of the Homeless Network Scotland team and our wider partners and associates. While we’ve made significant strides in addressing homelessness, the housing emergency has halted progress. This moment only fuels our resolve to pursue urgent solutions to Scotland’s housing and homelessness challenge.”

Professor Richard A. Williams, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, said: “Maggie Brünjes has brought about lasting, system-wide change in the fight against homelessness, inspiring policy and partnerships across Scotland and beyond and whose work exemplifies the values of purpose, compassion and global impact that Heriot-Watt holds dear.”

The laureation was delivered by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Director of the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University. This, along with Maggie’s response, can be viewed at this video link from around 30:40m.

Response to Edinburgh suspension of council housing letting policy 

Almost 18 months after declaring a housing emergency and amid spiralling homelessness in the capital, Edinburgh Council is taking the kind of bold action needed to address the problem – an emergency brake that will create breathing space to fix a system in meltdown.
Councillors approved a suspension of council homes letting policy to reserve almost all properties for people experiencing homelessness.

As the proposal stated, in the last twelve months Edinburgh City Council has breached its statutory duty to provide accommodation on 3,263 occasions, a rise of 115% in a year. The proposal rightly recognised that “Doing nothing is not an option”.

People who are experiencing homelessness are the worst hit by the housing emergency, and this emergency situation requires an emergency response. That is why we strongly support this prioritisation of housing allocations for people who are homeless. This is the right way to go if local authorities are to stop breaching people’s legal right to housing. And it is the way for councils to escape the trap of spending hundreds of millions of pounds on poor quality temporary accommodation in low quality hotels and B&Bs that no one wants or benefits from other than private owners.

We urge other councils facing similar pressures to do the same.

We also urge registered social landlords to explore how they can use their resources to prioritise people who are homeless in the midst of the housing emergency.

For at least the period of the housing emergency, a significant increase in the allocation of all available housing to households who are homeless needs mandated by Scottish Government. In the areas with the greatest pressures, this needs to go beyond current convention and apply to the development of new builds and to the acquisition and allocation of existing homes.

Doing so will reduce homelessness, and free up more quality temporary accommodation in communities, preventing people, families and kids being stuck in those hotel and B&B rooms.

Importantly, this move can also give the system more flexibility to make sure people have a safe place to sleep rather than having to use a communal ‘shared air’ night shelter or sleep rough. We need to accelerate these actions now, so that adequate accommodation can be accessed during the critical winter months, in Edinburgh and Glasgow especially.

Prioritising housing for those experiencing homelessness is a legal and moral imperative and an urgent emergency response. But let’s be clear: a functioning homelessness system should serve as a safety-net for when homelessness has not been prevented, not a primary pathway to stable housing. While a functioning housing system would place affordable housing within everyone’s reach in Scotland.

Housing Emergency: inclusion thrives in the ordinary

Maggie Brunjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, on why the housing emergency can’t become a cover for deepening exclusion.

Picture two paths: one leads to an ordinary flat, a space to call your own, no different from anyone else’s. The other to a sleeping pod, a hostel room, a homeless B&B or shelter – a separate setup designed ‘for people like you.’

For those navigating homelessness, that second path might provide shelter, but it often comes with a catch – rules, labels, and a subtle message that your choices don’t fully count and your life not fully equal.

The first path, though? It’s mainstream housing, a key to stability, safety and a chance to decide and be who you are beyond your circumstances.

This is not only about roofs and walls. It’s about recognition, dignity, belonging and the radical idea (it sometimes feels) that no one’s life is less important.

Why does this matter?

When housing can’t be provided for everyone, as is the case in Scotland today, then the shape of ‘the next best thing’ becomes extraordinarily important. It reveals what matters and to whom.

Housing isn’t just shelter; it’s a space where life unfolds – and on our own terms. When we offer something lesser or distinct, we’re implying that not all lives deserve the same texture or possibility.

The housing and homelessness sector in Scotland is crying out for a political intervention that is inspiring, ambitious and passionate about housing in Scotland – and which wholeheartedly embraces three truths:

  • First, that homelessness is a housing crisis – and the most devastating outcome of a broken housing system.
  • Second, that most of us – if we want it – can thrive in an ordinary home as part of an ordinary community.
  • And third, that inequality is healed through reform and redress – not by deepening divides that scar the lives of people already at the hard edges.

We have a progressive homelessness sector in Scotland which has delivered major changes to modernise its response over many years. At the heart of that, an understanding that inclusion thrives in the ordinary, framed in a modern policy of prevention and rapid rehousing into mainstream homes.

Progress has included an intentional move away from services like large-scale hostels, ‘shared air’ communal night shelters, outdoor soup kitchens. Away from any initiatives that create stigma by ringfencing people affected together. And away from any services that label or reinforce people as ‘homeless.’

But there is a risk that this direction of travel is forced to retreat by a deepening set of housing challenges that will only mask the extent of deepening exclusion.

What are the big risks?

Currently, the ‘next best thing’ on offer to many people navigating homelessness is the exact reverse of what they need, a parallel system of temporary accommodation of the type and standard that can cause frustration, fear and anxiety – and with the sting of stigma too.

That councils are paying out millions to private operators to profit from substandard temporary accommodation should concern everyone. When fundamental housing services are an opportunity for profit, we send a message: that homelessness is not only an acceptable status quo, but a market to tap into. Literally banking on exclusion, rather than investing in inclusion.

The segregation, short-termism and typecasting that goes hand in hand with these services can have long-term consequences for people’s sense of identity, value and belonging, which for many eclipses any short-term benefit. And we know that these services often become a default, not a bridge, that harden into our systems.

Congregating people in close quarters builds stress, affects health, damages relationships and forces everyone’s hand around fundamental issues like ‘risk.’ Who isn’t at risk when people are held together for long periods at the most difficult time of their lives – in casework waiting rooms, in hotel rooms and B&Bs, in outside queues for food and shelter.

How did we get here?

Scottish Government already has policies restricting the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation and has made funding available to all councils since 2019 to make transitions that will ease and accelerate routes to settled housing.

But three forces have strained local budgets and plans and driven cascading setbacks for councils tackling homelessness:

  • Global factors: the pandemic and its aftermath, cost-of-living crisis, and the international displacement of people due to conflict and unrest.
  • UK-wide factors: including UK government fiscal policy, welfare benefit reforms and immigration policy and procedure.
  • National factors: an accumulating housing deficit leading to the Scottish Parliament’s declaration of a housing emergency in 2024.

What needs to happen now?

In times of crisis, it has been described that we should attend both to the most affected, and the most able to be assisted.

So we need investment in real housing outcomes for people at the hardest edge.

We need to go further to ensure that housing and support services offered are not just equal to but also seek to redress the extraordinary set of challenges and disadvantages that people have faced in their lives. Housing First works by combining ordinary housing with extraordinary support. And because it says, you belong here too.

We need to mobilise the transformation of shared, supported housing for the small number of people that don’t want their own place. This needs jointly planned and commissioned by councils and health and social care partnerships, losing the ‘homeless’ label entirely and helping to break down other ‘care group’ silos and stigma in this provision at a local level.

The most pressured council areas also need investment in a replacement plan for unsuitable temporary accommodation so that there is no commercial profit from homelessness in Scotland. Councils, housing associations and the third sector can provide better for less but need invested in to do so.

And we need to keep working toward the ideal housing system which provides an affordable home for everyone and a tight supply of temporary accommodation to support housing transitions for households that need a safety net in in the short term.

In the platforms we create for people with experience of homelessness, the themes of belonging and being treated with respect are among the most recurring themes. Because people experiencing homelessness aren’t a distinct, separate group with unique needs. Navigating tougher conditions than most, yes, but driving toward the same goals – agency, privacy, stability, safety.

Quick fixes may fill a gap today, but they can carve a deeper divide tomorrow, subtly shaping how we see ourselves and each other in the long run. Inclusion thrives in the ordinary – with thoughtful, inclusive action, the housing emergency can be a powerful catalyst for a fairer Scotland.

The Everyone Home Collective has set out a course of action for the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 Strategic Board about taking a people first approach to the housing emergency. Read it here.

GHIFT, the lived experience platform in Glasgow, had 16 conversations with people using overnight winter services. You can read more here about people’s experiences here.

What’s new for 2025 in the Learning Lounge? 

Happy New Year and a Happy Lunar New Year to everyone celebrating on the 29th of January! With the new year comes new learning opportunities focused on areas including staff wellbeing, and the skills that elevate good practice to great in the homelessness workforce. And on top of that we have new digital content for you to learn at your own pace. 

Have you made a resolution to hone your skills in strengths-based working or set an intention to learn more about the human right to housing?  Are you responsible for the induction of new team members or trustees in 2025?  

Explore our latest training updates to help guide you and your colleagues on a positive learning journey this year and beyond. 

What’s new? 

Upcoming training dates 

  • There are a few spaces left for our updated course The Unequal Risk: an Equality and Human Rights Lens in Housing and Homelessness, held online on 16 January – in our opinion this course is a must for any new board member, frontline worker or volunteer. Book now to avoid disappointment. 
  • For the first time, A Rough Guide to Homelessness Policy and Legislation in Scotland includes self-paced digital content to work through in your own time, as well as a live session on 13 February – perfect for brand new staff or returners to the sector, reserve a space for a new colleague. 
  • Join people keen to learn more about joining the dots between sectors to prevent homelessness at our Closer to Home: a place-based approach to preventing homelessness training on 4 March. Sign up or share with someone in your local area. 

Wider training opportunities 

  • The Frontline Network Scotland’s drug trends training on 14 January is full but you can add your name to the waiting list. 
  • Shelter’s upcoming homelessness training series covers homeless applications, enquiries and decisions and reviews. Run between 23 January and 6 February 2025 for £20 a session or £50 for all three. 

  eLearning and toolkits available to the sector 

  • A new OECD combatting homelessness toolkit offers guidance for policy makers, including information about prevention, models like Housing First and financing. 
  • Simon Community Scotland offers gambling harm eLearning for frontline teams. 
  • The Housing Options toolkit from the Scottish Housing Network is available for local authorities and is currently in trials for housing associations. 

Reflecting on a busy 2024 

Thank you to everyone who came to events with us in 2024! Here are some of our highlights:  

  • We learned with over 200 learners, volunteers and students. 
  • We delivered 15 different online trainings, inhouse workshops and lectures. 
  • 98% of you would recommend the training to a friend or colleague. 
  • 87% named someone they would share their learning with after the session. 
  • 86% made a new connection as a result of attending. 

One of our most heartwarming projects was delivering wellbeing workshops to over 100 housing workers, and their responses to the session were lovely to read: 

“Amazing training, thank you for a day out. You guys really are a breath of fresh air.”  

“Presenters were excellent, very knowledgeable and welcoming.”  

“Really enjoyed today’s training met new colleagues and felt I am not alone.” 

To suggest a training topic you would like to see on our programme, or to send us details of webinars, learning events or workshops for the next training bulletin, please email laura@homelessnetwork.scot 

Everyone Home collective statement on far-right violence

Reflecting on the Islamophobic, racist and fascist violence we have seen in parts of the UK in recent weeks, the Everyone Home collective has one simple message for our friends, colleagues, partners and allies who are part of, or work with, minoritised communities:

We stand with you in solidarity and resistance.

As a collective we are committed to doing our bit to create a fair and equal society where everyone can live peacefully and be treated with dignity and respect. Having access to a decent home is a crucial part of that aspiration, one that extends to everyone in Scotland, whether they were born here or arrived seeking to build a new life.

Among our collective and across our broader networks and families are people from minoritised communities and from refugee and migrant communities and the services that support them. We especially acknowledge their heightened concern, and we say:

We will always be your allies. 

There is no place in our society for anyone who spreads or acts on prejudice to create fear or harm, whether on the streets or online. Ignorance and hatred cannot defeat solidarity, compassion and aspiration – the values which will always underpin everything we do as a collective.