Category: News

The Scottish Housing Regulator has continued to publish its monthly updates on the impact of Covid-19 on the work delivered by social landlords, which includes local authorities delivering statutory homelessness services. 

The data for September points us towards some good news, and also identifies some areas that still require improvement.  The data shows that the number of homelessness applications made to Scottish local authorities has gone down for the second consecutive month, with a 3% reduction between August and September.  And while there are 14,200 households in temporary accommodation, September saw the first small reduction since the beginning of the pandemic.

Further good news is the number of social housing lets increased by 17% in September.  But with only 38% of lets during the month going to homeless households, there is still a long way to go in hitting the 80-90% rate recommended by the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group to see progress in reducing the numbers of households in temporary accommodation across the country. 

You can find the full data for September here. 

We are pleased to continue to support the work by the Scottish Government and local authorities to develop clear guidance as the revised Unsuitable Accommodation Order across the country. 

In our response to a recent informal consultation, we welcomed the clarifications in the updated draft of the guidance in relation to the centrality of accommodation being accessible, the setting of a maximum number of people who can be accommodated in shared tenancies, and that rapid access accommodation is accessible without a completed homelessness assessment. 

As the drafting of the guidance moves into the final phase, we would still like to see some additional clarity on how choice and consent will be built in for ‘out of area’ placements and deciding whether a placement in a particular locality is suitable.  

In our response to the Scottish Government consultation on a Ministerial Statement for modifying local connection referrals in Scotland we reaffirmed our strong commitment to the suspension of local connection referrals in Scotland, endorsing the position that better housing outcomes are more likely to be achieved through increased choice for the households affected, than a strict application of a legislative test by a local authority.

We understand that any change in legislation brings with it a level of uncertainty, and agree with the need to monitor any impact of the change on a local authority’s ability to meet their homelessness and housing duties. 

We do not anticipate that any impact on local authorities will outweigh the positive benefits achieved for those directly affected, and we support robust and transparent monitoring and reporting to be sure.

Homeless Network Scotland and Crisis Scotland, working with local authority and Scottish Government colleagues, have prepared a short guide on what the HARSAG recommendations mean for Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans going forward.

The guide is intended to assist local authority leaders to transfer policy and practice recommendations from the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) into local Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans (RRTPs) and factored into local delivery. It aims to do this by:

• streamlining themes and priorities
• clarifying the implications for RRTPs
• highlighting roles and responsibilities of partners

Councillor Elena Whitham, COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokesperson said:

“Local Government is committed to working with partners to end homelessness, and this short guide is intended to support the transfer of the national recommendations and policy into local delivery. We know that although we have all experienced the pandemic, its effects and impacts have not been the same across the country, however significant challenges exist for all. I hope this guide, which has been developed by Crisis and Homeless Network Scotland with support from local authority officers and Scottish Government, provides useful assistance in our shared ambition of ending homelessness in Scotland.”

You can view the RRTPs and HARSAG Guide for Local Authorities here.

There is also a 10-minute briefing here that summarises over 100 recommendations and what they mean for RRTPs (sound on!).

At Homeless Network we know the importance of working together and sharing knowledge.

We asked the people who make up our wider collective network some questions about their perspectives on the importance of shared learning, collective impact, the ingredients for successful collaboration, and their own unique contribution to the process of making change.

This is what they said.