Category: News

Remembering Marion Gibbs who died on 7 December 2022

Marion was at the very centre of Scotland’s housing sector. For over 30 years, her life’s work was focused on those in the most housing need; people affected by homelessness, overcrowding and those in unsuitable, unsafe or temporary accommodation.  

Marion cared deeply for those issues, but heartily resisted any maudlin or sentiment around it. She was driven instead by a sense of equality and fairness, by what’s right. She was a leading champion for how good law and policy should be used to protect, defend and enable people.

Marion especially cherished her role at Scottish Government that she took up in 2009. It represented to her a position where she could best put to good use her culmination of experience and knowledge. She was not what you would call a typical civil servant. She knew so much yet wore that knowledge lightly. Her equal grasp of the strategic big picture combined with a grounded understanding of how things worked in the real world – all shared with clarity and warmth in equal measure – won the deep trust and respect of Ministers and colleagues alike. She so precisely articulated the responsibility of national and local government in ensuring everyone has a home and was also so pivotal within the structures to deliver on it.

Recently Marion contributed to a journal being published to mark a key policy milestone. It is no surprise that her article was about the importance of partnership and trust, on keeping momentum going and on working together. She was the sector’s go-to for information, advice and insight. She really shone as a regular and popular conference chair, keynote speaker and expert panellist within and beyond Scotland – leading debates and discussions in her deep Aberdonian brogue.

A life’s work involves not just advocating for progress but also defending against anything that takes us backwards. Marion did both persuasively, collaboratively and tirelessly and never shied away from speaking truth to power. There are less than a handful of people in Scotland who have been involved in such an important landscape and spanning such an important period. Marion was not just one of them, she was the lynchpin.

We owe her a lot and we’ll miss her.

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Marion’s family are holding a private funeral service next week, while a bigger celebration will be held in Spring so that everyone who wants to will have the opportunity to come together and pay tribute. We hope to share more details of that event in the new year.

Lorna Gibbs has set up a charity fundraiser for Stonewall in loving memory of her partner which is welcoming donations here.

In November, the National Records of Scotland published the annual homeless death figures report, which estimates that 250 people died while experiencing homelessness in Scotland in 2021. This is at a similar level to 2020, but higher compared to 2017, when these statistics were first collected.

Most recorded deaths (81%) were among men. 72% of women who died were under 45, a higher proportion than men of whom 58% were under 45.

There were an estimated 127 deaths attributed to drug use among people experiencing homelessness. While this is a fall over the past year, drug use still accounts for 51% of all deaths while homeless. Suicide accounted for 9% and alcohol-specific deaths 7%. It is important to highlight there can be overlaps between suicides and drug-related deaths as a death can be counted as both.

There are 3 important points to highlight from the report that have been misreported in some places:

1. Deaths were not ‘on the streets’ but mainly in temporary accommodation. This matters because it reflects the reality of people’s experience of homelessness in Scotland, which is mostly not outdoors, but in temporary places waiting for a settled home.

2. This distinction also demonstrates where energy and resources need targeted to end homelessness in Scotland. More settled, affordable homes for people to build and live their lives. Less time waiting, with more 1:1 support for people to draw from.

3. Full focus should also be on the many missed opportunities. For those at the sharpest end, homelessness follows adversity and poor health – for some people, right back to childhood. People need rapid access to joined up services and a No Wrong Door approach.

You can read the full National Records of Scotland Report on Homeless Deaths 2021 by clicking here.

The Scottish Government annual report to Parliament on the Action Plan was published Thursday 20 October: Ending Homelessness Together: Annual report to the Scottish Parliament October 2022 (www.gov.scot)

The report summarises progress towards meeting the commitments made in the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan. The Measurement Task and Finish Group (co-chaired by Homeless Network Scotland and the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland) will make recommendations for how future annual reports can focus on impact, so that we will understand more about what’s working. 

A few key points from the annual report:

• Hidden Homelessness – Scottish Government is commissioning research  to understand more about the experiences of people who don’t approach the local authority for support and are therefore hidden from the official homelessness statistics. Scottish Government is also working with the Office for National Statistics to develop novel methods of collecting data on these groups.
• Local connection – if approved by Parliament, the legislative changes will come into force on 29 November which means that Scottish local authorities will from that date no longer have the power to refer a person who is homeless or threatened with homelessness to another local authority in Scotland on the grounds of their local connection.
• Homelessness prevention – the Housing Bill detail will be announced next year, timings still to be confirmed. There will be a consultation before final decisions are made. Some existing grants for local authorities are going to be restructured so that prevention work is a more significant requirement. 
• No wrong door – highlighting the importance of the development to the prevention duties and person-centred approaches.
• National Care Service – it is not proposed that the housing or homelessness functions of local authorities should transfer to the National Care Service. However, the report sets out how important it is that social care support services work effectively alongside other services, including across housing and homelessness. 
• Housing as a human right – a new Human Rights Bill including the right to adequate housing will be introduced this parliamentary session. The Scottish Government will consult on the proposals for the Bill in 2023.

The full action plan is here.