Homeless Network Scotland is set to launch a new Learning Lounge at the Safe As Houses conference later this month. This represents an expanded programme of learning and training options from Homeless Network Scotland.
Two new courses will be available immediately after the launch, with more courses being added in January 2021. Initially, all training will be delivered via an online training platform and booking priority will be given to existing customers and businesses.
Full details of the new courses and how to book will be available from 20 October on the Homeless Network Scotland website.
It is an opportunity here in Scotland to reflect on the activity that has taken place over the past six months, and the 12 months since last year’s event including many of the issues that we will be discussing at Safe As Houses, Scotland’s Homelessness Conference 20-22 October.
People can get involved in World Homelessness Day through schools, with work colleagues, places of worship or family groups, either raising money for local and national charities or helping to raise awareness of the issue through social media.
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.
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.”
This month’s network briefing provides a summary of the latest developments for everyone who wants an end to homelessness in Scotland.
This month, we’re highlighting the new Programme for Government 2020-2021. It was encouraging to see a continuing focus on homelessness as a ‘national priority’ with specific commitments intended to impact on it. This programme draws on the work of the Scottish Government’s Social Renewal Advisory Board and the reconvened HARSAG – and shaped by the All in for Change Team and Everyone Home Collective facilitated by Homeless Network Scotland.
Why does this ongoing commitment matter? The annual homelessness statistics for 2019-20 were released just a week ahead and showed a 4% increase in households who are homeless in Scotland. This is the third year in a row showing small % increases, which followed over a decade of year-on-year reductions. The figures don’t represent the successes of the early lockdown responses, nor do they fully reflect the first year of Scotland’s ground-breaking rapid rehousing plans coming into effect. But the numbers do alert us to the urgent need for significant action ahead on prevention and reducing housing insecurity.
The team at Homeless Network Scotland are working hard to bring all of what the last 6 months has meant into a 3-day online conference so that we can all debate, deliberate and move forward. Hard Edges Scotland shone a light on how homelessness services are already ‘carrying the can’ for gaps and missed opportunities to get alongside people going through tough times earlier. Safe as Houses will explore what is needed to build forward from this experience and to make sure that homelessness services – and people directly affected – are not left carrying the can of a global pandemic.
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