A key piece of research and policy position was launched at our conference on Tuesday 5 October. The much-anticipated report, Shared Spaces, looks at the future role of supported and shared housing as a response to homelessness in Scotland.
3 November 2021 | 10am – 11:30am
The pathway to prevent and end homelessness for people leaving the armed forces in Scotland
Presented in partnership with Veterans Scotland, this Homeless Network Scotland Member Event is an opportunity to input into the pathway to prevent and end homelessness for people leaving the armed forces in Scotland.
Kevin Gray, CEO of Veterans Housing Scotland and chair of the Veterans Scotland Housing Group and Dr Steve Rolfe, Lecturer in Social Policy at Stirling University, will present the draft report for the first time publicly. This will be followed by a Q&A when the team want to hear your experience of veterans’ homelessness and your views on what needs to be done to address the housing needs of former services personnel.
In 2020 The Scottish Government requested the support of the Veterans Housing Scotland to explore, investigate and recommend a pathway to end homelessness for people leaving service and former service personnel already established in civilian life. The remit and approach of the project includes:
The definitions of homelessness
Transition from service and the barriers to housing
Establishing the experience of other homelessness projects and their impact
Data sources and the availability of accurate information
We are proud to host Scotland’s largest knowledge and networking events on ending homelessness.
This year Choice will cover three themes over 3 days – Housing Choice, Support Choice, My Choice. We will be exploring how we ensure real-world options match the national policy ambition – and how we exercise choice and control when options are sometimes limited.
Join us as an event partner, sponsor or exhibitor across 3 dynamic days (5-7 October). We are using a specialist conferencing online platform ‘Remo’ to reach further and more creatively – and to make sure every delegate gets a unique conference experience.
Find out more about the conference and how you and your organisation can be centre stage.
Recent experience has sharpened the impacts of poverty and inequality. However the underlying issues reflect pre-existing inequalities. The Strategic Plan published this month by the Poverty and Inequality Commission sets out how the Commission will advise, support and challenge partners to embed the shared commitment to addressing poverty and inequality and translate it into action through five priorities.
In Strategic Priority 3: Advocate for a response to COVID-19 that addresses the structural causes of poverty and inequality, the Commission pledges to carry out work to look at the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on the key levers to address poverty: work and earnings, social security and housing. The report overall reinforces what we know, that poverty and inequality are not inevitable and that it is possible to redesign society to addresses the structural inequalities leading to poverty and create a fair and sustainable economy. The strategy highlights thatthe Scottish Government has provided a lifeline to those who are struggling by investing in food security and community well-being, housing people who are homeless, and providing additional payments to carers during the pandemic. But significant challenges remain, and this strategy commits to ensuring that reducing poverty and inequality is central to policy making and delivery in Scotland. More information here.
The Social Renewal Advisory Board was set up by Scottish Ministers to set out proposals aimed at renewing and reinvigorating the country after the pandemic. Their detailed and far-reaching report has now been published, 10 years on from the Christie Commission. The final report titled If not now, when? sets a course for future social policy making in Scotland.
Setting out a future where inequality and disadvantage are addressed at systemic level, it includes multiple recommendations that address aspects of homelessness and destitution, based on experience gained during the pandemic as well as long-standing evidence and data. The report notes that the impact of the pandemic will further increase the need for affordable housing, with an initial step to increase housing supply through mapping existing stock and expanding programmes that convert empty properties into affordable homes for those who need them.
The firm commitment from Scottish Government and COSLA to ending homelessness is acknowledged early as part of the foreword to the far-reaching report. Among recommendations on homelessness; the right to an adequate home should be incorporated into Scots Law in line with the implementation guidelines on the ‘Right to Adequate Housing’ set out by the UN Special Rapporteur, implementing the proposals of the Prevention Review Group on a legal duty to prevent. Where people are affected by homelessness, they must have access to safe, secure, suitable and accessible housing as quickly as possible along with any extra support if they need it. It also recommends that the national plan for ending homelessness should be extended beyond 2023 for a further five years, edging towards the 10-year, two-parliamentary-terms call to end homelessness made by Everyone Home as part of the collective’s ‘manifesto’ to Scotland’s political parties.
At more than 70 pages, If Not Now, When? is a landmark in social policy, drawing together evidence, expertise and lived experience, and recognising that some people and communities will need extra help and support as part of a refreshed ambition for social and economic change with accountability