Join us for a members-only online event on 16 July, 10:00-12:30 to hear directly from seven pioneering projects funded through the Scottish Government’s £1million Upstream Homelessness Prevention pilot.
This session is designed specifically for housing associations (as relevant bodies named in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025) and third sector organisations working to end homelessness. You will explore how the pilot projects have tested and implemented the new Ask and Act duties, sharing practical insights, successes and lessons to strengthen homelessness prevention across Scotland.
What we will cover on the day:
Share experiences from the pilot partnerships.
Launch the official Learning Report and explore the findings.
Test the strength of the report recommendations.
Identify gaps and discuss readiness for the new duties.
Gather members’ views on the transferability and deliverability of the conclusions.
The Upstream Homelessness Prevention Fund was managed by Homeless Network Scotland and SFHA between June 2025 and April 2026. The pilot supported local partnerships between housing associations and third-sector organisations to deliver early intervention, tenancy sustainment support, with a strong emphasis on cash-first approaches. The Learning Report captures rich qualitative insights from the projects, focusing on how partners embedded the ‘Ask and Act’ mindset in practice, what worked, the difference cash-first support made and the system barriers that remain.
This is a Homeless Network Scotland and SFHA members-only event. Please register in advance. The joining link will be sent around 24 hours before the session.
We’re looking forward to celebrating people working in frontline services across homelessness and related sectors at this year’s homelessness conference: honouring the folk who go all out to make the difference for people they support.
The Viki Fox Heart of Support Award will again honour and highlight great work being in voluntary and public sector roles. There are just two weeks left to nominate someone you think deserves recognition.
The 6 nominees who are selected will receive an award engraved with their name, a £200 cash payment and VIP entry to the conference including meals and accommodation. Nomination is quick and easy – there’s a link below.
The scope of the awards is expanding across sectors
We will celebrate colleagues who work in pioneering, collaborative ways in the housing and homelessness sector and beyond – in social care, justice, mental health and other services. This recognises that preventing homelessness and supporting people to thrive happens in many different settings – a key theme of this year’s event.
Last year, high quality short films about the six recipients were shown in the main auditorium, and there was an award-giving event at the conference dinner. It was an uplifting part of the programme and really got to the heart of what great support looks like.
Why nominate?
It’s a chance to celebrate anyone you know who does great work – in roles including caseworkers, advisors, support workers, housing officers, social workers, coaches, counsellors and more.
The nominees will have the chance to tell delegates about their work – the successes, the challenges, why they do what they do. This will be captured in a short film coproduced with recipients to be presented at the conference. Find out more about the awards including last year’s nominees.
About the conference
This year’s conference is titled ‘Raising the Level: from Hard Edges to Whole Lives’. The focus is on transforming support for people facing severe and multiple disadvantage – by moving away from fragmented service delivery that delivers trauma, poor outcomes and poor value for money, to a system that is joined-up across sectors and matches the complexity of people’s real life needs.
Here’s how to nominate
Tell us in around 150 words how your nominee’s way of working makes the difference. It could be about their persistence, methods, the relationships they build, challenging how things are done, innovating.
The conference will take place on the 6 & 7 October 2026 at Perth Concert Hall. Please do make sure that your colleague agrees to being nominated, can meet with us ahead to create a video and is available to be celebrated at the conference in Perth. Last year’s films also featured contributions from nominators and people being supported.
Deadline for nominations! For your important entry to be considered, please be sure to send it to us by 29 June, 2026. Just click the button for the short nomination form.
This year’s homelessness conference was the biggest yet, with more than 250 people joining us on each day at Perth Concert Hall.
Highlights this year included the Cabinet Secretary announcing new homelessness funding, All in for Change sharing the results of their first peer research, unforgettable keynotes from Floella Benjamin (plus Humpty) and Eireann McAuley, a celebration of the frontline workforce, and the launch of the Housing Justice manifesto.
It was quite the conference – if you couldn’t make it, click below to read the report to catch-up on what happened, check out pics from both days, and discover the top takeaways from the event.
People with lived experience of homelessness are uniting with dozens of leading organisations to demand urgent action on Scotland’s worsening housing crisis.
Their joint manifesto was launched at Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference, hosted by Homeless Network Scotland, on 27 and 28 October in Perth. It calls on all political parties to commit to a programme of housing justice that will ensure everyone in Scotland has a safe, secure place to call home.
The scale of the crisis has been laid bare in recent statistics, with more than 17,200 households currently trapped in temporary accommodation, a 6% increase in one year, including over 10,000 children.
Nearly 250,000 people are on waiting lists for a social home, and 40,688 households have applied to their local council for help with homelessness last year. On average, those in temporary accommodation wait 238 days for a settled home.
The call comes from members of Everyone Home, a collective of nearly 40 third and academic sector organisations focused on ending homelessness, and All In for Change, a platform that unites lived experience and practitioner insight of homelessness across Scotland to enable decision-makers to drive real change.
All in for Change said: “In the Change Team, we see every day how the housing emergency hurts people who are homeless and those trying to help them. Frontline workers do amazing work, but they’re trapped in a broken system with too little housing and support to fix it.
“Some of us have been homeless ourselves, so we know the reality first-hand. But we believe this can be made better for others, with real political commitment and funding being used more wisely. We’ve laid out clear expectations for party manifestos, and we’ll keep pushing to shield people from the worst of homelessness in this housing emergency.”
Set almost 18 months after Scotland’s housing emergency was formally declared, the manifesto outlines a practical, values-led approach to resolving a crisis that continues to deepen inequality and exclusion.
It sets out five priority actions for the next Scottish Government, under the banner of SCALE. It calls for the launch of a national ‘Big Build’ programme to dramatically increase the supply of social housing, with a target of nearly 16,000 new homes each year of the next parliament backed by at least £8.8bn.
The manifesto urges political leaders to coordinate support services more effectively, so that housing is fully integrated with health, social care and justice to ensure no-one falls through the cracks. It demands that public funding decisions align with housing priorities, including the use of tax powers and long-term investment plans that can give frontline workers and those they support greater certainty.
It insists that housing rights must be protected and fully resourced, warning that too many local authorities are currently struggling to meet their legal obligations. Finally, it calls for fast-track housing and support for groups facing systemic exclusion, including people affected by poverty, discrimination, trauma, gender-based violence and UK immigration policy.
Maggie Brünjes, chief executive, Homeless Network Scotland, said: “Scotland’s housing emergency is a plan gone wrong, driving homelessness and deepening inequality. To reverse this, we must invest in more social housing, higher incomes, proactive prevention and support that is fully integrated across health, housing, justice and social care.
“The Everyone Home collective manifesto is a plan to put that right and a call for Housing Justice. Combining first-hand, professional and academic insight, the manifesto outlines real-world measures to reduce inefficient spending, prevent the worst harm among the worst off, and scale solutions for a Scotland where everyone has a home.”
The manifesto launch will take place at Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference, this year titled ‘It’s Personal: the human face of the housing emergency’. The two-day event will shine a light on the real-world, human impact of the crisis, through people with lived experience, advocates and experts sharing knowledge and practical ideas to deliver lasting change.
Helen Murdoch, Asst. Director of Strategic Operations & Development (Scotland) at conference delivery partner The Salvation Army, said: “This year’s conference takes place in the shadow of a housing and homelessness crisis that tests our compassion, our resources and our collective resolve.
“The demand for services that support people experiencing homelessness is far outstripping supply – that must change and change quickly. Conference is an opportunity to explore our role in bringing about that change and The Salvation Army is proud to be an event partner.
“It is also a time to look beyond the headlines and statistics, to recognise and celebrate the extraordinary courage and resilience of teams working in communities, the third sector, local authorities and religious bodies to support people experiencing homelessness.”
Keynote speakers include Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan MSP, who will address the event, renowned children’s rights campaigner and author Baroness Floella Benjamin, and rising social justice advocate Eireann McAuley, named one of the Young Women’s Movement’s ‘30 under 30′.
Baroness Floella Benjamin OM DBE said: “Having a safe and secure home is the key building block for living a happy and fulfilling life, yet today that basic human need is being denied to too many people. The impact on them is heartbreaking.
“All it takes is the grit, perseverance and determination to face the challenges and to keep on pushing for positive change. There is no shortage of people willing to fight this fight and I support all those who are working to change people’s lives.
“When I address Scotland’s annual homelessness conference I hope to energise and inspire the audience, to bring them joy amid the struggle. I want to remind people that even though it sometimes doesn’t feel like it, the work they do every day can and does change lives. So never give up.”
The launch marks the start of a national conversation aimed at ensuring housing and homelessness are top-tier priorities ahead of the 2026 election.
We’re pleased to share an updated programme for this year’s two-day homelessness conference, delivered with event partner The Salvation Army, and day sponsors Wheatley Group and The Housing Network.
You’ll find a link to the programme at the end of the email, but here’s a taster of what’s on – just part of the picture of a packed 2 days.
It’s Personal: the human face of the housing emergency will unite experts, advocates and those with personal experience of homelessness at the sector’s largest gathering to shine a light on the real world impacts of the housing emergency.
Keynote speakers at Perth Concert Hall include writer, TV star and campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin, social justice champion and ‘30 under 30’ rising star Eireann McAuley, Finnish homelessness expert Juha Kahila and Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Housing Màiri McAllan.
Great sessions will ask ‘what will make the breakthrough on homelessness in Scotland?’, explore what can we learn from success in Nordic countries, and share what peer research has uncovered on people’s lived experience of navigating the system – and solutions to fix it.
We’ll also celebrate 15 years of Housing First in Scotland with a session exploring the impact, the success and the challenges of a programme celebrated as one of the most effective preventative interventions of the devolution era.
A diverse range of breakouts cover topics including children’s experiences of living in temporary accommodation; race, ethnicity and homelessness; enabling people’s rights; missingness in health care; changing the narrative on homelessness.
There’s also entertainment, a conference dinner, exhibitions and opportunities for networking. Check out what’s on and read more on the theme of the conference at the link below. We look forward to welcoming you in four weeks.
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