Author: Toni Sword

Consultation Strengthens Destitution Route Map

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As the pandemic eases, Scotland will return to a position where the legal basis for UK, national or local government funding for accommodation, support and advice for people without established entitlements remains inadequate. In most cases, councils are currently funding housing and financial support to people with eligible needs.

Around 80 responses were returned for individuals and organisations across Scotland, with overwhelming support for the preferable future set out in the document. Recommendations included in the latest Route Map helped inform the Scottish Governments recently revised Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan.

The ambition to address poverty and destitution for people who do not have access to mainstream welfare and homelessness services is shared by the Everyone Home collective, Scottish Government and COSLA, which represents Scottish Councils. The organisations have agreed to work together to:

  1. develop a human rights-based pathway to safe accommodation and support for people who are destitute with no recourse to public funds (NRPF)
  2. identify innovative funding and delivery models for testing and implementing the pathways across Scotland
  3. continue to call on the UK Government for the policy changes needed to ensure that there are no gaps in the legal framework for people seeking asylum and settled status in Scotland.

Having No Recourse To Public Funds is for most people a temporary experience. The new route-map aims to mitigate the damaging impact of that experience until a person’s status is legally resolved to gain or re-gain access to public funds or re-connection with a person’s country of origin is made, with a forward plan in place to ensure destitution is not experienced in another place. To view the Route Map go to the Everyone Home website.

Save the Date: UK movement to change the system launch: 1 December

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The UK-wide New System Alliance is a response to the experiences of people going through tough times. That the systems people need to navigate are at their most rigid when they should be at their most flexible. And whichever door people enter is often the label they have stuck on them – mental health, addictions, offending, homelessness… 

The New System Alliance has also been driven by what was heard through a series of workshops and seminars over the summer titled Wisdom from the System. Driven by evidence that current systems people encounter when they go through tough times are not working and need to change, learning from these workshops has informed next steps. 

After years of listening and learning from the realities of people’s lives Mayday Trust, Changing Lives, Homeless Network Scotland and Platfform all recognised the same problem – one of the biggest challenges people face going through tough times is the system itself. Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the New System Alliance will be a place for those who feel there is something wrong with the current systems for people experiencing tough times – and want to take a role creating a better, fairer one.

Save the date, 1st December 2020 for a week of online events where we will be exploring systems change, hearing from a variety of voices and provide the opportunity to challenge, discuss and reflect. Watch Homeless Network Scotland’s website for more information and on social media at @HomelessNetScot

Homelessness Guide for Scots Councils

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A guide for Scotland’s 32 local authorities is published todaysummarising more than 100 recommendations from the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) after it was reconvened by the Scottish Government in response to the pandemic. The guide has been developed by Crisis and Homeless Network Scotland, with support from local authority officers and the Scottish Government.

HARSAG met originally in 2017 to recommend actions and solutions needed to eradicate rough sleeping and transform the use of temporary accommodation in Scotland. It also advised Scottish Ministers on how to ensure the recommendations are successfully implemented to secure rapid change and improvement. The Scottish Government reconvened HARSAG in June 2020 to help mitigate against the impact of the pandemic on this progress.

This latest series of recommendations endorse rapid rehousing as the key approach in preventing and resolving homelessness in Scotland and the right framework for recovery. There are also central asks of the UK Government on issues such as No Recourse to Public Funds.

Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis and Chair of HARSAG, said:

“Scotland has made great progress in addressing homelessness in recent years, adopting rapid rehousing as a key policy at national level and publishing a Government Action Plan to End Homelessness.

“The Scottish Government reconvened the HARSAG in June in order to ensure this progress continues through the pandemic. The Group highlighted key actions local authorities and their partners must take to accelerate the elements of rapid rehousing which we know work best – preventing homelessness before it happens and prioritising safe, settled homes over temporary accommodation. 

“This short, simple guide will make it easier for local authorities across Scotland to implement HARSAG’s recommendations and refresh their rapid rehousing strategies in light of the pandemic. Local authorities and partners now have clear guidelines on how to work together to help end homelessness for good.”

Elena Whitham, COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokesperson, said:

“Local Government is committed to working with partners to end homelessness, and this short guide is intended to support the transfer of the national recommendations and policy into local delivery. We know that although we have all experienced the pandemic, its effects and impacts have not been the same across the country, however significant challenges exist for all. I hope this guide, provides useful assistance in our shared ambition of ending homelessness in Scotland.”

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive at Homeless Network Scotland, which worked alongside Crisis, local authority and Scottish Government colleagues to produce the guide said:

“Councils in Scotland are at the centre of the response to Covid in so many ways. The guide is a simple tool to assist local authorities transfer into delivery the main themes sitting behind over 100 recommendations. It highlights what they mean for councils’ Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans, which all local authorities have produced, and sets out the roles and actions expected of key partners.”

The recommendations recognise that, on account of the pandemic, Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs) must be adapted and the data informing them reviewed, and some of HARSAG’s original recommendations must be accelerated, emphasised or broadened in focus.

The four key themes in the guide are: 

  • prioritise prevention
  • broadening settled housing options
  • deepening the equalities focus
  • creating a responsive system with ‘no wrong door’.

Impact of Covid-19 on Social Landlords

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The Scottish Housing Regulator has continued to publish its monthly updates on the impact of Covid-19 on the work delivered by social landlords, which includes local authorities delivering statutory homelessness services. 

The data for September points us towards some good news, and also identifies some areas that still require improvement.  The data shows that the number of homelessness applications made to Scottish local authorities has gone down for the second consecutive month, with a 3% reduction between August and September.  And while there are 14,200 households in temporary accommodation, September saw the first small reduction since the beginning of the pandemic.

Further good news is the number of social housing lets increased by 17% in September.  But with only 38% of lets during the month going to homeless households, there is still a long way to go in hitting the 80-90% rate recommended by the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group to see progress in reducing the numbers of households in temporary accommodation across the country. 

You can find the full data for September here. 

Unsuitable Accommodation Order – Draft Guidance

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We are pleased to continue to support the work by the Scottish Government and local authorities to develop clear guidance as the revised Unsuitable Accommodation Order across the country. 

In our response to a recent informal consultation, we welcomed the clarifications in the updated draft of the guidance in relation to the centrality of accommodation being accessible, the setting of a maximum number of people who can be accommodated in shared tenancies, and that rapid access accommodation is accessible without a completed homelessness assessment. 

As the drafting of the guidance moves into the final phase, we would still like to see some additional clarity on how choice and consent will be built in for ‘out of area’ placements and deciding whether a placement in a particular locality is suitable.