Category: Blogs

Safe As Houses, booking now open!

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Booking is now open for Scotland’s largest networking and knowledge event on ending homelessness.

Across 3 dynamic days (20-22 October), Safe as Houses will explore what is needed to build forward from the last 6 months to make sure that homelessness services – and people directly affected – are not left carrying the can for a global health pandemic.  

As well as exciting guest speakers, including Kevin Stewart MSP (Minister for Local Government, Housing & Planning), Safe as Houses will feature live lounge panel discussions and speed training opportunities.

The programme opens for bookings today (Wednesday 30 Sept) previewing more than 25 different sessions within five broader themes to connect and reflect on what we know, what we’ve learned and how we can build a shared understanding to move forward together. Our themes are:

  • a global pandemic: drawing out international learning and comparisons on responses to homelessness
  • whatever the problem, the answer is relationships: exploring the role of relationships as the lynchpin for professional and personal wellbeing
  • a day in the sun for good law and policy: building from recent successes to ensure it is upheld on the ground every time and for every person
  • same storm, different boat: redressing the unfairness at the root of homelessness and the impact of the pandemic and its aftermath
  • if we don’t all row, the boat won’t go getting alongside each other – in all our different roles – to make a collective impact on homelessness.

Full details of all sessions are available here.

This year we are going online – but with no zoom doom or webinar fatigue! We are using a specialist conferencing online platform to reach further and more creatively – and to make sure every delegate gets a unique conference experience. From 20-22 October ‘Safe As Houses’ is a menu of seminars and interactive online sessions that lets you pick-and-mix the things you’re interested in, meaning you create the conference you want to attend.

Booking is essential, so reserve your place at Scotland’s annual homelessness conference today.

We can’t wait to see you there.

The Prevention Commission’s final report published

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The Prevention Commission – people with lived and frontline experience of homelessness and members of the All in for Change Team – have been working together for nine months to help design new legal duties to prevent homelessness in Scotland. 

Through their meetings they have come together to share our wide range of experiences to support the work of the Prevention Review Group, which will make a series of crucial recommendations to the Scottish Government about new homelessness prevention laws. 

As a Commission we have prioritised an approach to prevention that: 

  • Is built on asking people what they need and acting on it, striking the best possible balance between housing security and housing choice  
  • Looks to re-establish homelessness services as a true safety net for emergencies that can’t be prevented 
  • And ensures duties to prevent homelessness are shared across Local Authorities, Housing Providers, and Health and Social Care bodies. 

Being involved in the Commission was exciting and challenging for everyone involved and members of the Commission were delighted to have directly influenced the work of the Review Group. 

All of the Commission’s reports are available to read on the Homeless Network Scotland website, and you can read their final report here.

Housing First passes 300 tenancies

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Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder has created more than 300 tenancies with an additional 50 added since April, the most recent monitoring report has revealed.

Housing First provides ordinary, settled housing as a first response for people whose homelessness is made harder by experiences such as trauma and addiction. The Pathfinder launched officially on 1 April 2019, supported by housing providers across the country with Wheatley Group leading, and with funding from the Scottish Government, Social Bite and Merchants House Glasgow.

Figures for August 2020 are the second highest so far in terms of new tenancies started, with 21 people moving into their own home and a total of 306 tenancies started. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire joint Housing First consortium marked 55 tenancies created, almost half their target of 120.

The key indicator of ‘tenancy sustainment’, which shows how many people kept their tenancy, remains high over the full first year of the Pathfinder, this month at 87%. This compares favourably to international benchmarks for tenants who often have trauma and long-term homelessness as part of their life experience.

Of the 40 tenancies that have ended during the Pathfinder, 19 were cases where a tenancy could not be sustained successfully – for example, abandoning the flat. The remaining 21 ended for other reasons – sadly, mostly likely to be as a result of the death of the tenant or long-term prison.

Dundee, at 49 tenancies, is just one shy of the halfway mark towards a target 100 tenancies. Housing First tenant, James, from Dundee, was the second referral for the city’s consortium and took up a Housing First tenancy after recovery from addiction and periods of rough sleeping.

James said: “I didn’t want to go into a hostel because I wanted to keep away from that environment and support my recovery, so I stayed on the street. The Housing First team kept in touch with me and really got to know me, and then they helped me find a flat, now it’s just weekly check ins. After about a year I chucked away my sleeping bag when I finally felt sure I was going to be safe and secure in the flat. Housing First has changed my mindset and I’ve built a new life for myself.”

Doug Gibson, partnerships manager at Homeless Network Scotland, said: “Each milestone reached is down to the hard work of tenants, housing providers, support workers and local partners and never more so than in recent months. A significant scaling up of Housing First was signalled by the First Minister in the recent programme for government, which makes the National Framework for Housing First, due to go out for consultation shortly, timely.

“That will provide a clear and comprehensive resource to support every partner and sector starting or scaling up Housing First in Scotland in line with our original objectives and the new urgency brought about as a result of the pandemic.”

Safe as Houses: Conference now open for sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities

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Safe as Houses, 20 – 22 October

We are proud to host Scotland’s largest networking and knowledge events on ending homelessness.

Across 3 dynamic days (20-22 October), Safe as Houses will explore what is needed to build forward from the last 6 months to make sure that homelessness services – and people directly affected – are not left carrying the can for a global health pandemic.  

This year we are going online – but with no zoom doom or webinar fatigue! We are using a specialist conferencing platform to reach further and more creatively – and make sure every delegate gets a unique conference experience. 

Join us as an event partner, sponsor or exhibitor and be centre stage at this key event. Find out more about how you and your organisation can get involved in Scotland’s annual homelessness conference here.

Full programme and booking information will be available soon – until then make sure to save the date, 20 – 22 October!

Comment on Scottish Government homelessness statistics

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Maggie Brunjes, Chief of Executive of Homeless Network Scotland:

“We know homelessness is not always prevented or responded to quickly enough and today’s figures from 2019/20 show there is still work to do, despite such a determined policy environment in Scotland. 

The system itself is outdated and too often doesn’t reflect what actually works and what matters. This is changing but change on the ground can be slow and the pandemic has heaped uncertainty onto an already complex problem. 

“The causes of homelessness are predictable and most often rooted in disadvantage, which restricts people’s options. The figures also highlight housing supply and housing access issues and increasing the supply of suitable homes for families and individuals is pressing.  

“Effective prevention can stop homelessness before it starts and a top-level group is working on how we can get better at this. If someone’s homelessness is not prevented that person should be accommodated quickly in normal, settled housing with the right support – this is the focus of Scotland’s rapid rehousing and Housing First approach.” 

“The statistics released today do not include the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on homelessness: the ‘overnight’ success in lifting people out of rough sleeping, a ban on evictions and urgent measures by charities, councils and government to plan ahead for this winter. Nor do they fully reflect the first year of Scotland’s ground-breaking rapid rehousing plans coming into effect. However, the figures are a reminder that the big, structural systems change needed to end homelessness, which is well underway, must continue at pace.” 

Full details are available on the Scottish Government website here