homelessness Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Homeless Network Scotland: we are all in

Choice and options in homeless response

Posted on 29th September 202129th September 2021

Scotland’s annual conference looking in detail at the causes of and solutions to homelessness takes place next week from 5 – 7 October. The theme of choice runs through this year’s varied programme covering topics from the housing we want to live in, to the area we want to settle and the support we want to tap into as Covid continues to have an impact on housing and support services.

Guest speakers at this year’s event include Shona Robison MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing & Local Government; Professor Ruth Chang from The University of Oxford; Dr Martin Kettle, Glasgow Caledonian University; Pat Togher, Glasgow City Health & Social Care Partnership and Dr Beth Watts, I-SPHERE at Heriot Watt University. The online format using the Remo platform allows Dr Andrew Clarke and Professor Cameron Parsell from The University of Queensland, Australia, to join the event, co-authors of the recently published book ‘Charity and Poverty in Advanced Welfare States.’

The conference addresses three questions that will really matter in 2022.

How can we ensure that real-world options match the policy ambition?

How do people exercise choice and control when options are sometimes limited?
How do we enable informed choices, not enable others to make choices for us?

Professor Ruth Chang’s research on choice and decision-making has been profiled by media outlets internationally. Ruth has also given lectures or been a consultant to industry and academia on this theme. Professor Chang said:

“Making good choices is not a matter of being expert at discovering the pros and cons of the options before you. If you had a crystal ball and could know the possible futures corresponding to your options, you would still not have the critical tool for making good decisions. What is required instead is the ability to commit, to put yourself behind something. That’s how we can move forward in hard choices and make ourselves who we are.”

On Tuesday 5 October, journalist Kirsteen Paterson, a 2021 Scottish Press Awards nominee for coverage of immigration issues, interviews Sabir Zazai, Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, as he reflects on current events, his own journey from Afghanistan and what a fairer way forward in Scotland would look like. This session is presented in association with The National newspaper.

On day two the choice is yours, with three interactive breakout rooms exploring choice in support led by Dr David McCartney, Clinical Lead, LEAP, NHS Lothian; Robin Johnson, Founder and Editor of PIElink; Rankin Barr & Frank Reilly from Simon Community Scotland. Also on day two, Pat Togher, Assistant Chief Officer Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, looks at how cities are planning their recovery from a unique set of homelessness challenges experienced during the pandemic.

Wrapping up the conference on day three is, Freedom of Choice? Choice Informed By Trauma Awareness, a panel session that offers insights and stories about how personal choice is viewed by those in authority within the criminal justice system and demonstrates how an understanding of the impact of trauma for those dealing with the reality of addiction and homelessness can change minds and outcomes. Hosted by Ishbel Smith of Heart In Mouth, conversationalists will include Iain Smith (Scottish Lawyer of the Year 2020) and James Docherty and Kirsty Giles of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit.

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said:

“Choice is the core principle that will lead us through current dilemmas and debates about what options are ‘right’ for whom, and in which circumstances. But informed choice is key – people with a housing concern or crisis need access to the right information, and for some a bit of advice and advocacy too.

“We work closely with partners to prepare this annual event and work hard to make sure it reflects the moment. We look forward to welcoming you, to learn from the previous 12 months and shape the year ahead.”

Two key pieces of research will be launched at the conference. On Tuesday 5 October the much-anticipated report, Shared Spaces, looks at the future role of supported and shared housing as a response to homelessness in Scotland. This is presented by the report author, Anna Evans, Director at Indigo House along with chair of the research advisory group, Dr Beth Watts, Senior Research Fellow, I-SPHERE at Heriot-Watt University.

The following day, Wednesday 6 October, the launch of the Homelessness Monitor is hosted by Crisis. The Homelessness Monitor provides an independent analysis of the homelessness impacts of recent economic and policy developments. A panel discussion will be chaired by the Chief Executive of Crisis, Jon Sparkes, including a presentation of findings by Heriot Watt University followed by a Q&A with Maggie Brünjes CEO of Homeless Network Scotland, Catriona MacKean of the Scottish Government and John Mills of ALACHO.

Delegates will benefit from specialist conference platform, Remo – which takes online events to a new level. Remo enables greater interaction, with table-to-table networking and the freedom to roam and join spontaneous conversations in the ‘room’.

Booking for the conference can be made online here, more information and the full programme is available at this link. There’s also still time to be associated with Scotland’s annual homelessness conference highlighting your organisation as an exhibitor or sponsor. More information here on the Homeless Network Scotland website.

A small organisation making a big impact

Posted on 11th August 202122nd September 2021

A busy first half of 2021 for Homeless Network Scotland included hosting the sector’s largest gatherings online, expansion of All In For Change – Scotland’s lived experience experts – and consolidation of the Everyone Home Collective, which now includes more than 30 third sector and academic organisations concerned about homelessness.

Homeless Network Scotland is a knowledge-based membership organisation. As a network, it creates opportunities to connect, learn and act on homelessness to end it for good. The organisation’s latest Impact Report sets out it’s work in the first half of this year. Priority issues in the report include what’s needed to end destitution among people with no recourse to public funds; the future role of supported housing as part of our homelessness response; taking a place-based approach to preventing homelessness and supporting Scotland to scale up Housing First.

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said:

“During the first half of this year it has been our privilege to be a support-act for a remarkable sector that has continued to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on people, including enabling a successful vaccination roll-out programme across services. And to provide a platform for people who can draw on their first-hand experience of homelessness to advise on what works, what really matters and what happens next.”

Important highlights in the first half of the year included:

Building on the success of last year’s Staying In fund, when they distributed £100,000 directly to 1,000 people experiencing homelessness, Homeless Network Scotland worked with the Scottish Government homelessness unit to get cash directly into the hands of people living in temporary accommodation through a £50,000 winter support fund.
400 people registered for the Branching Out conference in March. Over 100 people took part in two online Members Events, one focused on preventing a return to rough sleeping and the other considering the future of supported housing.
Following the publication of the Everyone Home Collective’s route map on ending destitution and protecting human rights, Homeless Network Scotland has worked with key partners to design a new gateway to a safe destination, support and advice for people with no recourse to public funds, preparing to launch later this year.
Publication of the National Housing First Framework, a blueprint for all areas starting up or scaling up Housing First in Scotland. In the transition from year two to year three of Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder 129 people moved into their own Housing First tenancy between January and June 2021, a 54% increase compared to the same period in 2020. Prior to the Scottish elections, Homelessness Network Scotland worked with partners and politicians to secure cross-party support for Housing First in the new parliament.
Expansion of All In For Change with recruitment of an additional 14 Change Leads. The Change Team all have lived and frontline experience of homelessness and are contributing to the updated Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan following the new recommendations from the reconvened Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, bridging the gap between policy and action on the ground.
Launch of The Learning Lounge, a specially curated programme of learning and training events for organisations across Scotland. This programme reached three-times as many people than the same period last year, with 135 people from 56 organisations attending 11 courses covering six key topics.

Homeless Network Scotland has just announced dates for its autumn conference from 5-7 October 2021 based around the theme of choice. The Conference will consider what it will take to ensure that people facing homelessness have choice and real options. More details will be available in the coming weeks.

A new era for All In For Change as 14 new members join

Posted on 5th August 20216th August 2021

Ginny Cooper, Change Lead at Homeless Network Scotland.

This week we welcomed 14 new members to the Change Team. As I hovered my mouse over the ‘Admit all’ button in our Teams virtual meeting I couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive. Before everything went online, we would make people feel welcome through eye contact, body language and offering them a cup of tea. On screen it is much harder to gage how people are feeling. But, as the new faces began to pop up on my screen, smiles and awkward waves were exchanged and I knew I didn’t have anything to worry about.

All in for Change is led by a Change Team of people from across Scotland committed to ending homelessness. Every Change Lead brings unique knowledge to the team. Experts in what homelessness looks like within their networks for the people who are most affected, they bridge the gap between policy, planning and action on the ground.

The team was formed in December 2019 and had only just got established when the pandemic changed everything. After a busy 18 months the Change Team continue to play a major part in helping shape homelessness policy and practice, including the Scottish Government’s updated Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan.

The team use clear language and an open and accessible, collaborative working approach to bridge the gap between decision makers, people working in services and people making use of services, as part of a joined-up effort to end homelessness in Scotland.

As with any coproduction process, the group have embraced their different perspectives and experiences and have been ironing out the details as the programme evolves. But few could have predicted just how flexible the team would become – adapting to remote working online, taking on fast moving and rapidly evolving priorities caused by the pandemic.

Over the summer, and as part of the All in for Change (AIFC) programme, the Change Team has been talking to people from across Scotland to learn from their experiences as part of a national conversation. People who see how decisions made around homelessness look in everyday life. People who want to share how they think change can really happen. Responses will feed into a report presented to the Scottish Government.

To get involved in the national conversation simply complete an online survey here, download our starter conversation here or sign up for one of our interactive workshops, the next one is 11 August and you can sign up here.

Comment: no evictions to nowhere

Posted on 5th July 202126th March 2022

Claire Frew, Policy and Impact Manager at Homeless Network Scotland, comments on the current discussions on evictions and the urgency needed to prevent evictions in homelessness.

Emergency legislation to prevent the enforcement of evictions during the pandemic has played a vital role in protecting people’s homes – and may at least in part have contributed to the reduction in homelessness applications reported during the first year of lockdown.

As circumstances change and restrictions start to lift, partners who came together on this issue in response to the public health emergency are now setting out what is needed in the longer term.

SFHA in a recent report encourage that the pre-pandemic process on evictions needs returned to, that housing associations always arrange payment plans for tenants in rent arrears and will not evict someone who has agreed to, and is meeting, the terms of such an agreement. On the other hand, there are also strong arguments being made for an extension to the pause on evictions; that people’s homes should be protected while there is any level of pandemic restriction in Scotland.

For Homeless Network Scotland, the route forward is clear – under no circumstances should anyone in Scotland be evicted with nowhere to go. That has always been disproportionate, serves no purpose and achieves no gain. This is also a central pillar of Everyone Home, the collective of 35 third and academic sector organisations. We need the focus of the current conversation on evictions to shift there, and urgently.

The most common reason for eviction is rent arrears. The Scottish Government recently announced a £10m fund, grants, not loans, to support tenants who have fallen into rent arrears as a direct result of COVID-19. While the details are still to be worked up, this is welcome. Getting cash directly to people can stop evictions quickly and decisively. It must be directed to prevent evictions and to reset the counter on any stage of the eviction process that the household was at.

We want to encourage confidence – and evidence – that housing associations will never evict someone who has agreed to, and is meeting, the conditions of rent payment plans. And with more support for housing associations, councils and tenants to deliver that.

And importantly, we want more value given to the benefits of early intervention and the value of keeping people in their homes where possible. This outcome can be achieved through a proactive housing management approach focused on earlier intervention, with independent advice, information and advocacy for tenants and resources in place to ensure we do not return to a situation where people are being turned away or moved on without accommodation.

The SFHA report acknowledges the benefits of early intervention and the value of keeping people in their homes where possible. To follow on from this, SFHA – in partnership with Homeless Network Scotland, Crisis and Simon Community Scotland – are inviting bids from housing specialists to research, consult and create a practical resource to assist social housing providers to protect homes, prevent eviction, maximise tenancy sustainment and prevent homelessness in Scotland.

More information from the SFHA website here: www.sfha.co.uk/jobs-online/tenders