Category: News

Homeless Network Scotland appoints five new board members

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Homeless Network Scotland has welcomed five new board members.

The new directors and trustees bring a wealth of diverse expertise across housing and homelessness, the wider third sector and local and national government.

They join a board of nine who are at the forefront of progressing the action we need to address the challenges people across the country face today and ultimately to end homelessness in Scotland.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to:

Maeve McGoldrick, Head of Policy and Communications Scotland, Crisis

Since joining Crisis in 2015, Maeve has led policy and external affairs teams across England, Scotland and Wales, working to deliver positive change for people experiencing homelessness. Prior to this, Maeve worked in the anti-poverty sphere and was involved in the development of welfare reforms in England.

Peter Menellis (individual)

Formerly in the IT industry, Peter has worked in frontline homelessness as a Residential Care and Support Officer with the Salvation Army. He has held positions with Ardenglen and Craigdale housing associations where his duties included input on good governance, housing law and finance, and was a member of the Fife Federation of Tenants and Residents.

Vicki Pirie (individual)

Vicki worked in the housing and homelessness advice sector after graduating from university in 2015 until last year, first as an adviser at Aberdeen Cyrenians’ drop-in centre, then as a trainee solicitor and solicitor, first at Legal Services Agency (LSA) and at Shelter Scotland Housing Law Service. Vicki currently works for the Scottish Government Legal Directorate as a member of the Equalities and Social Justice Team.

Sue Shone (individual)

Sue has for 30 years worked in social and private housing, factoring, homelessness services and local authority housing in England and Scotland. Sue has also worked as policy officer with the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland and the Scottish Government, where she helped to shape the policy landscape and showcase good practice. Sue has also held frontline roles and is currently Director of Housing and Communities at a housing association in Glasgow.

Laura van der Hoeven, Senior Relationships Manager, Cyrenians

Laura is a member of the senior management team at Cyrenians, a national charity and member of Homeless Network Scotland. Laura leads on public affairs, communications and fundraising functions and has experience of serving on Boards, as a trustee of the Scottish Book Trust from 2018 to 2023 and the Prison Advice and Care Trust between 2012 and 2016.

Collective warns of rough sleeping winter risk to life and human rights

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The Everyone Home collective has warned that people forced to sleep rough in Scotland could die this winter because of a severe lack of accommodation amid record levels of homelessness.

The collective has written to Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP and COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokeswoman Councillor Maureen Chalmers voicing “serious concern” that the housing emergency will put lives at risk in the coming months. As things stand, there is simply not enough safe accommodation available for those who are homeless this winter. 

The group, made up of nearly 40 third and academic sector organisations focused on housing and homelessness, issued a call for coordinated action as it warned of an accelerating crisis magnified by factors including cost-of-living pressures, austerity and inadequate social security. 

Everyone Home has also for the first time written to the Scottish Human Rights Commission to ask them to urgently investigate this potential breach of government obligations to protect the fundamental right to life. Both Scottish Government and local authorities have duties under the Human Rights Act 1998 to take measures to safeguard lives. 

In addition, the organisations have urged UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP to ensure that the Home Office plays its part in preventing homelessness in Scotland. The Home Office must provide local authorities in Scotland with resources to ensure people granted Leave to Remain can move quickly into settled homes. 

Everyone Home states: “Every person who is forced to sleep rough is one too many. Being left with no choice but to sleep in doorways and tunnels and parks severely damages people’s health and wellbeing, risks their safety and their lives, strips them of dignity and affects our wider communities too.  

“In Scotland in 2024, no one should be left with no choice but to sleep on the street, and we emphasise that forcing people to do so at any time of year and particularly during winter puts their life at risk.”  

It comes after Scottish Government statistics for 2023/24 showed that the number of people who slept rough prior to a homelessness application rose by 506 to 2,931 in the last year. That represents 7% of all households making an application and is higher than the pre-pandemic figure. 

The statistics also revealed rough sleeping is on the rise across much of the country – including locations not traditionally affected to the same extent as urban areas. 

Action to address the housing emergency now and in the longer term was top of the agenda at Scotland’s annual homelessness conference on 29 and 30 October, along with strengthening prevention and ensuring public bodies are equipped to deliver on their duties to address and prevent homelessness.

Maggie Brunjes, chief executive, Homeless Network Scotland said: “As we move into the coldest part of the year, we cannot allow an already bad situation to descend into tragedy. We need local and national government teams to work together quickly and effectively to protect lives by ensuring everyone has a safe place to stay.

“The bar has been set far too low for those at the sharpest end of homelessness this year and we cannot accept this. We need swift action to allocate and target resources to provide people with – at a minimum – somewhere safe to stay while they wait for a settled home.”

Letter to Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP

Letter to Yvette Cooper MP

Letter to the Scottish Human Rights Commission

Call for support on bus scheme for people seeking asylum

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Campaigners are rallying support in a bid to overturn the axing of a scheme that provided free bus travel for people in Scotland seeking asylum.

A motion proposed by the Scottish Greens at their opposition debate on Wednesday, 9 October calls for the Scottish Government to restore their commitment to the scheme.

This debate will go to a vote and Maryhill Integration Network is urging everyone to email their local MSPs to attend the debate and support the proposed motion. Find your MSPs here. You can use the template email below and watch the debate here.

‘Dear INSERT NAME

I hope this email finds you well.

I am emailing regarding the debate at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 9th October for Free Bus Travel for people seeking asylum in Scotland.

I am asking you as your constituent/organisation in your constituency to attend the debate and vote in favour of extending free bus travel to people seeking asylum in Scotland.

In October 2023, the Scottish Government announced that it would allocate £2m of the 2023/24 budget to roll out free bus travel to people seeking refugee protection. This commitment came after more than 2 years of campaigning from those with lived experience of seeking asylum here in Scotland – we were delighted.

But in August 2024, the Scottish Government announced suddenly that they had scrapped the scheme. 

This came as a huge disappointment for many organisations, especially for those who have been campaigning for this change, sharing their experiences and highlighting the impact it would have made.

People seeking asylum do not have the right to work. They are forced to live on barely £50 a week to meet all their essential needs whilst they wait for months – sometimes years – for a decision on their application for asylum.

People seeking refugee protection are forced into poverty because of a hostile asylum system. But here in Scotland we can do more to support people seeking asylum to rebuild their lives here. And extending free bus travel should be part of that.

On Wednesday, the Scottish Greens will bring a motion to the Scottish Parliament chamber calling on the Scottish Government to re-consider their decision and to restore the commitment to free bus travel to people seeking asylum.

I am asking you to vote in favour of this motion.

I hope you can participate in this debate as such a small change will have a significant positive impact for people seeking asylum in Scotland.

Kind regards,

Homelessness data reveals a breach of trust

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The annual homelessness statistics released today by the Scottish Government make for sober reading. And reveal the breach of trust between government and the housing and homelessness sector in Scotland.

The figures reveal a 4% rise in homelessness applications – topping 40,000 households asking their council for help during 2023-24. An 8% rise in live cases nationwide to 31,870 and a 9% rise in people stuck in temporary accommodation – a record high – including more than 10,000 kids waiting for a permanent home. 506 more people experienced the sharpest edge of homelessness, being forced to sleep rough with no roof over their heads at all.

These are not just numbers – they are individuals, families and children being let down in a crisis and diverted to temporary flats, hotels and B&Bs, instead of homes, for months on end.

It is a deeply distressing situation for people affected, as well as for the services and sectors that support people, and the organisations committed to advocating for people and for change.

While the post-pandemic environment and cost-of-living crisis has played a hand, Scotland’s progressive housing policy has been undermined by its own hand and the fiscal policy of both UK and Scottish Governments.

The Scottish Government’s December budget made a hugely damaging £200m cut to the affordable housing supply programme, over and above the reach of the UK Government’s capital budget freeze. It is notable that the quarterly housing statistics also published today showed affordable home approvals were 44% lower than the peak figure in the year to June 2020.

Each and every decision jeopardising housing targets and exposing the progress made towards ending homelessness and rough sleeping in Scotland to new risk. And each and every decision betraying the trust of the sector, ignoring warnings, expert insights and evidence.

Scotland has a housing emergency – it’s time to act like it.

But how? Only with housing and fiscal policy aligned, and a supply of affordable housing in line with demand, will we see the scale of progress we need on the key pillars of Scotland’s progressive homelessness policy – prevention, reducing unsuitable, expensive and temporary accommodation, ensuring childhoods are spent in settled not temporary homes, scaling up Housing First for those at the hardest edge – and ensuring people seeking sanctuary or to settle in Scotland have a safe place to stay.

The statistics show thousands of people are being denied their legal right to housing because the system is operating way beyond capacity.  Our progressive housing and homelessness rights are designed to avoid this, but urgently need backed up with adequate investment in homelessness, support and building social homes.

And we need to think big – on matters of land and wealth tax and on the society we want to be.

In the near-term, local authorities need proper funding to discharge their statutory duty properly in the face of intense external pressures. And they need proper investment support to implement rapid rehousing plans. This approach is proven to work – a system that prioritises earlier prevention and ensures stays in temporary accommodation are as brief as possible.

Without these interventions – and without thinking big – these statistics will become entrenched as a predictable yearly roll call of how tens of thousands of people experiencing homelessness are failed year after year in Scotland.

Homelessness workers in Scotland recognised with access to leading discount scheme 

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Blue Light Card, the nation’s leading discount provider for the emergency services, NHS, social care sector and armed forces, announced today that it is welcoming the homelessness workforce into its community.

Today’s announcement is the result of a new partnership between Blue Light Card and Homewards, a five-year programme created by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales which aims to demonstrate that it’s possible to end homelessness as well as to change perceptions around the issue.

They have worked with the 4 membership bodies across the UK – Homeless Network Scotland, Cymorth Cymru (Wales), Homeless Connect (Northern Ireland) and Homeless Link (England) to support the homelessness workforce deliver in local communities.  

Frontline colleagues are often the first point of contact for people facing the worst crisis of their lives. But working in those roles is increasingly more pressurised because of the housing emergency and cost-of-living crisis. 

New research by St Martin-in-the-Fields charity shows that over half (52%) of those working in the sector sometimes struggle to pay their bills or housing costs (44%). Nearly one in two (47%) have spent their own money on work related costs and 51% said that they always or often feel at risk of burnout and a further 29% said they sometimes feel this way.

Access to Blue Light Card will provide practical ways for the homelessness workforce to save money and improve their own wellbeing, from discounts on everyday essentials like groceries and utilities, to coffees and meals out with friends and family after a long day at work.

Alidad Moghaddam, Chief Executive Officer at Blue Light Card said “This workforce may not be as easily identifiable as uniformed blue light workers like nurses, doctors, police, or firefighters, but we see them. ‘Blue Light’ symbolises service, sacrifice, and societal impact – values which are shared by the homelessness workforce who often put the needs of others before their own.

“Preventing and ending homelessness can only be achieved with the continued dedication of these very special people, and the impact they have is why they are so deserving of an offer that’s dedicated to them. If we can play even a small part to support their health and wellbeing and show how much we value and appreciate them, we will do that.”

Pim Gregory, Executive Director of Homelessness, The Royal Foundation commented: ‘Homelessness is a complex, multifaceted issue and as such the homelessness workforce includes a huge variety of roles. They work tirelessly to support some of society’s most vulnerable – from those rough sleeping, people ‘sofa surfing’ or sleeping in their cars, to families and children stuck in unsuitable temporary accommodation. It is essential we recognise and support the vital role the homelessness workforce plays in our society and we’re so grateful to the Blue Light Card for their support on this and commitment to Homewards going forward as an Activator.”

Gaining membership to the Blue Light Card for access to market-leading discounts and rewards is quick and easy. Full time and part time employees of organisations that work directly on homelessness across the UK are eligible. Register online at www.bluelightcard.co.uk. A card costs £4.99 and is valid for two years.

Don’t miss out!

In Scotland, members of Homeless Network Scotland will enjoy a simple sign-up process for accessing the scheme, with those organisations on a pre-approved list that you’ll find during the sign-up process. If you’re not yet a member of Homeless Network Scotland, it’s simple and quick to join to receive this benefit and many others – join here.

But rest assured, frontline staff working in homelessness can still access the Blue Light Card without being subscribed to the national membership bodies with some verification and ID checks during the sign-up process – please see below.

Visit: Blue Light Card – Discounts and rewards for the homelessness workforce.

Click Join Now and proceed to sign up. 

Choose Social Care – Homelessness at the ‘your service’ drop down box.

Select ‘Your employer’ (the organisation you are employed by*). 

Enter your personal details. 

You’ll receive a verification email at the provided address. Follow the instructions to complete your registration. You will need to click the link in the verification email to activate your account 

Log in to your online account and go to ‘My card’  

Pay a £4.99 fee to gain 2 years access to Blue Light Card  

* If you are not on the list of approved organisations, you will be asked to verify your employment by either providing proof of employment (see the list of accepted IDs in the FAQs link below) or a work email address.

For more details about eligibility please visit the Blue Light Card FAQs page.   

If you are unsure whether you are eligible, please email:contact@bluelightcard.co.uk