Category: Blogs

We hold power and responsibility to deliver equality for people

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We’re not all at equal risk of homelessness. Every person carries their own unique experiences and faces different barriers to housing. Some groups of people are systematically disadvantaged, and despite legal duties, the evidence tells us that inequalities persist in Scotland.

The Unequal Risk, an online course provided by our training and consultancy social enterprise All In, is focused on this issue. The training encourages reflection on how we can better listen to and represent diverse communities, covers the underpinning legislation, and offers practical tools to create better services. Read what community resilience worker Lizzie Ashworth experienced during a recent session.

I recently joined a Homeless Network Scotland training session, ‘The Unequal Risk: an equality and human rights lens in housing and homelessness’.

The training offered an inspiring and constructive opportunity to reflect on the unequivocal entitlement of all individuals to have their rights fully upheld and respected in their engagement with housing and homelessness services across Scotland, and the continued gaps in service-user experience.

The trainers facilitated great discussion on how best to redress inequalities around service access, including a consideration of the encouraging move across housing and homelessness provision to embed person-centred and trauma-informed best practice into frontline service delivery. The training also touched on the huge value lived experience from diverse communities brings to informing service design and appropriateness.

For the past 20 years, I’ve worked in community outreach and development, most often directly with marginalised and disenfranchised communities around themes of inclusion, rights and diversity.

I have seen first-hand how individuals’ rights have been breached both implicitly and explicitly in service design and delivery, from Gypsy/Travellers failing to access women’s health advice due to services being ill-equipped to provide culturally appropriate services, to adults experiencing homelessness failing to access mental health support due to an absence of assertive outreach provision.

People in meeting round a table talking

The training supported a broad consideration of how an absence of rights awareness in how community services are developed and delivered both create and sustain significant and enduring barriers for individuals accessing critical advice and support.

It is encouraging to see best practice in inclusion, person-centred and trauma-informed support becoming increasingly commonplace across housing and homelessness services. Creating safety and ensuring that choice, compassion and respect permeate service delivery go a significant distance in meaningfully upholding the rights of service-users.

However, an acknowledgment of current challenges seems unavoidable, and the widespread funding cuts across Scotland’s health, social care and housing sectors paired with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on service-users and sector professionals are significant.

Together, these circumstances create an increasingly demanding and challenging context in which professionals find themselves under mounting pressure to sustain delivery of high quality humane and dignified support.

Ethical commissioning and ethical funding cycles seem to me fundamental to ensuring organisations and their staff retain capacity to deliver rights-informed and upholding services.

However, increasing job market competitiveness, impermanent job contracts and the worrying wider context of world events increasingly create conditions for declining mental health and burnout amongst statutory and third sector staff.

It’s easy, in the busyness of day-to-day service delivery, to overly focus on the task at hand, particularly where the task is assisting vulnerable individuals to access urgent and critical support. It can be easy to lose sight of good process, of checking what supported individuals value, need and want themselves – and how we can empower them towards improved circumstances, as opposed to services “doing to them.”

I found Homeless Network Scotland’s training a refreshing antidote to the bleak reality of current day-to-day news, and a potent reminder of the power and responsibility we all hold to make this world a more humane and dignified place, for ourselves and others, and striving to embed a rights-based approach into all our relationships and the services we deliver.  

Lizzie Ashworth, Community Resilience Worker, Cyrenians Reset Project

Join us for the next unequal risk session on 10 July to explore how you can make your practice, service and organisation more inclusive.

Response to Edinburgh suspension of council housing letting policy 

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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

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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.

Housing First: spotlight on Fife

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Fife Council lead officer for Housing Access and Advice John Ashford took time out to come to a Connect event in Stirling earlier this year, where he shared the local authority’s experiences of running Housing First. In this blog John again provides an expert view on the strategies that are working well in the area, and the challenges.

Fife has 89 Housing First cases, with 73 people in tenancies and 16 who are not ready for their tenancy or are waiting for a property. They have gone through the referral and assessment process before signing up.

Support is provided when a person is in temporary accommodation if the service user has not been allocated a permanent tenancy – or wherever they are residing (if sofa surfing etc) – this is a good opportunity to build a relationship.

We upscaled Housing First in March 2023 and now have four organisations providing support – Rock Trust for Youth, Bethany Christian Trust, Fife Women’s Aid and Turning Point Scotland. When the upscaling commenced, there were 29 Housing First tenancies – in just over 18 months we have increased to 73 Housing First tenancies and 16 awaiting the allocation of a tenancy.

One of our greatest achievements is the allocations process. This involves Housing Options discussions with case managers, providers and allocating officers in different areas.

We will identify two or three voids matching what tenant is looking for. This is not always possible due to housing demand but will look to identify at least one property that meets the preferences the customer has confirmed.

We encouraged the allocations officers to understand that we offer people a choice of home because that’s more likely to result in a successful tenancy. However, we do also attempt to manage the expectations that it is not always possible to provide multiple options on properties due to housing demand.

With any person experiencing homelessness we try to balance the preferences of the homeless customer against stock turnover, demand and number. But it also needs to be a realistic conversation.

People in Fife are more likely to be housed in a bigger town with more turnover of stock. There are challenges in the more rural areas – for example a small village might not have good transport links or a chemist. Tenants need to have support provision in those areas too.

Making sure tenants have access to other services can be a challenge for us and for the tenant. Operationally, we have great relationships with the support providers. We have a steering Group for higher end strategy and an operational Group. But once you step out of those groups it becomes harder to get buy-in. People tend to only come to those groups if an issue is raised about a tenant.  

If I could change one thing, I would go to other local authority services and say ‘this is how much you will save and reduce returns into your service through Housing First. This is how we can stave off crisis points for people accessing those services’.

I would love to see Housing First models for care leavers or prison leavers – programmes for different groups. At the moment, in Fife, this is not the case but I would like to see this opened out to give opportunity to more groups that require the support given in Housing First to have access to this.

Find out more about Housing First

Why workforce wellbeing matters and what you can do 

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At the busiest time of year for the homelessness workforce, it is more important than ever to centre collective care in our work, says Homeless Network Scotland Learning Lead Laura Ffrench-Constant.

We all know why worker wellbeing is important.  Happy and resilient workers lead to better outcomes for the people they work with who are experiencing homelessness. It also means less sickness, absence and staff retention. It means people feel valued and respected. 

However, as the latest Frontline Network worker survey highlights, there is more work to do to improve the wellbeing of the homelessness workforce.  

It found that 64% of workers felt that their role has a negative impact on their wellbeing. Just over half said they often or always feel at risk of burnout. Wellbeing was the most likely reason cited for people who do not want to continue in their role.

Not everything can be solved with workplace yoga or signposting access to free counselling.  

During a fringe session about wellbeing at the annual homelessness conference in Perth in October, we shared good practice examples from organisations across the network.

These included peer supervision, group reflective practice led by trained professionals, line managers incorporating wellbeing check-ins, dedicating time for team building and protected time for training.

Managing the workload of emergency cases and dedicating budget to wellbeing activities – and salaries – is also important. 

There are lots of useful resources across the web that workers, line managers and leaders can use.  

  • BeWell’s wellbeing toolkit designed for organisations working in the migration space includes workshop templates, policy templates and a directory of support 

Over the summer we facilitated play-based workshops for over 100 housing workers about wellbeing. We gathered together people from different organisations to share ideas, experiences and laughter; and the main takeaway people shared was that they felt less alone and comforted that we experience some similar challenges. 

Join us on 6 February for a creative and relaxed in-person workshop in Glasgow, generating solutions and ideas for workplace wellbeing. Priced at £50 per space for HNS members and £70 for non-members. You’ll find more information and testimonials on the booking page.

If your organisation doesn’t have budget for training, please get in touch at hello@homelessnetwork.scot or take a look at the Frontline Network training fund which is now available for wellbeing training.