Housing Emergency: inclusion thrives in the ordinary

Maggie Brunjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, on why the housing emergency can’t become a cover for deepening exclusion.

Picture two paths: one leads to an ordinary flat, a space to call your own, no different from anyone else’s. The other to a sleeping pod, a hostel room, a homeless B&B or shelter – a separate setup designed ‘for people like you.’

For those navigating homelessness, that second path might provide shelter, but it often comes with a catch – rules, labels, and a subtle message that your choices don’t fully count and your life not fully equal.

The first path, though? It’s mainstream housing, a key to stability, safety and a chance to decide and be who you are beyond your circumstances.

This is not only about roofs and walls. It’s about recognition, dignity, belonging and the radical idea (it sometimes feels) that no one’s life is less important.

Why does this matter?

When housing can’t be provided for everyone, as is the case in Scotland today, then the shape of ‘the next best thing’ becomes extraordinarily important. It reveals what matters and to whom.

Housing isn’t just shelter; it’s a space where life unfolds – and on our own terms. When we offer something lesser or distinct, we’re implying that not all lives deserve the same texture or possibility.

The housing and homelessness sector in Scotland is crying out for a political intervention that is inspiring, ambitious and passionate about housing in Scotland – and which wholeheartedly embraces three truths:

  • First, that homelessness is a housing crisis – and the most devastating outcome of a broken housing system.
  • Second, that most of us – if we want it – can thrive in an ordinary home as part of an ordinary community.
  • And third, that inequality is healed through reform and redress – not by deepening divides that scar the lives of people already at the hard edges.

We have a progressive homelessness sector in Scotland which has delivered major changes to modernise its response over many years. At the heart of that, an understanding that inclusion thrives in the ordinary, framed in a modern policy of prevention and rapid rehousing into mainstream homes.

Progress has included an intentional move away from services like large-scale hostels, ‘shared air’ communal night shelters, outdoor soup kitchens. Away from any initiatives that create stigma by ringfencing people affected together. And away from any services that label or reinforce people as ‘homeless.’

But there is a risk that this direction of travel is forced to retreat by a deepening set of housing challenges that will only mask the extent of deepening exclusion.

What are the big risks?

Currently, the ‘next best thing’ on offer to many people navigating homelessness is the exact reverse of what they need, a parallel system of temporary accommodation of the type and standard that can cause frustration, fear and anxiety – and with the sting of stigma too.

That councils are paying out millions to private operators to profit from substandard temporary accommodation should concern everyone. When fundamental housing services are an opportunity for profit, we send a message: that homelessness is not only an acceptable status quo, but a market to tap into. Literally banking on exclusion, rather than investing in inclusion.

The segregation, short-termism and typecasting that goes hand in hand with these services can have long-term consequences for people’s sense of identity, value and belonging, which for many eclipses any short-term benefit. And we know that these services often become a default, not a bridge, that harden into our systems.

Congregating people in close quarters builds stress, affects health, damages relationships and forces everyone’s hand around fundamental issues like ‘risk.’ Who isn’t at risk when people are held together for long periods at the most difficult time of their lives – in casework waiting rooms, in hotel rooms and B&Bs, in outside queues for food and shelter.

How did we get here?

Scottish Government already has policies restricting the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation and has made funding available to all councils since 2019 to make transitions that will ease and accelerate routes to settled housing.

But three forces have strained local budgets and plans and driven cascading setbacks for councils tackling homelessness:

  • Global factors: the pandemic and its aftermath, cost-of-living crisis, and the international displacement of people due to conflict and unrest.
  • UK-wide factors: including UK government fiscal policy, welfare benefit reforms and immigration policy and procedure.
  • National factors: an accumulating housing deficit leading to the Scottish Parliament’s declaration of a housing emergency in 2024.

What needs to happen now?

In times of crisis, it has been described that we should attend both to the most affected, and the most able to be assisted.

So we need investment in real housing outcomes for people at the hardest edge.

We need to go further to ensure that housing and support services offered are not just equal to but also seek to redress the extraordinary set of challenges and disadvantages that people have faced in their lives. Housing First works by combining ordinary housing with extraordinary support. And because it says, you belong here too.

We need to mobilise the transformation of shared, supported housing for the small number of people that don’t want their own place. This needs jointly planned and commissioned by councils and health and social care partnerships, losing the ‘homeless’ label entirely and helping to break down other ‘care group’ silos and stigma in this provision at a local level.

The most pressured council areas also need investment in a replacement plan for unsuitable temporary accommodation so that there is no commercial profit from homelessness in Scotland. Councils, housing associations and the third sector can provide better for less but need invested in to do so.

And we need to keep working toward the ideal housing system which provides an affordable home for everyone and a tight supply of temporary accommodation to support housing transitions for households that need a safety net in in the short term.

In the platforms we create for people with experience of homelessness, the themes of belonging and being treated with respect are among the most recurring themes. Because people experiencing homelessness aren’t a distinct, separate group with unique needs. Navigating tougher conditions than most, yes, but driving toward the same goals – agency, privacy, stability, safety.

Quick fixes may fill a gap today, but they can carve a deeper divide tomorrow, subtly shaping how we see ourselves and each other in the long run. Inclusion thrives in the ordinary – with thoughtful, inclusive action, the housing emergency can be a powerful catalyst for a fairer Scotland.

The Everyone Home Collective has set out a course of action for the Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 Strategic Board about taking a people first approach to the housing emergency. Read it here.

GHIFT, the lived experience platform in Glasgow, had 16 conversations with people using overnight winter services. You can read more here about people’s experiences here.

Homeless Network Scotland event report: Staying the course in a perfect storm

More than 70 colleagues joined a Homeless Network Scotland online event that explored the action we need to get out of the housing emergency while ensuring people’s rights are met and best housing outcomes are achieved today and in the long term.

Attendees and contributors from across councils, homelessness, housing, lived experience and academia lent their expertise and insight to Staying the Course in a Perfect Storm: Prioritising homelessness in a housing emergency.

Homeless Network Scotland's February event, Staying the course in a perfect storm.

They were asked to consider: What do we need to Defend, Direct and Divert to ensure we have the right systems, resources and values that will drive the best housing and support outcomes for people in Scotland now, while paving the way to a better long-term future?

Put another way, what do we protect, where do we bring clarity, and what do we need to do less of? And in what order? 

As a jumping off point, we used the ‘Defend, Direct, Divert’ route-map created collaboratively by 250 attendees at last year’s annual homelessness conference (find it here, with a conference report). We need to defend the culture change that’s been achieved in homelessness over recent
decades, with progressive rights and a solid plan for moving people on from temporary accommodation and into settled homes quickly.

We need to direct and influence each other on how to make rapid rehousing a reality, how to increase housing supply, improve prevention and achieve the outcomes in the Ending Homelessness Together plan. And we need to divert time, money and effort towards doing more of what works and away
from falling back on the failed solutions of the past.

Read more on the event and some of the key takeaways we heard in a short event report.

New homelessness prevention duties need system thinking

The Everyone Home collective and All in for Change have asked Scottish Government to target prevention funding toward small scale pilots that can enable close observation of pathways and processes that will need opened up to implement the new ‘Ask and Act’ homelessness prevention duties effectively.

This recommended course of action from the collective highlights that through action inquiry and a place-based approach, relevant bodies and local partners can enable learning on what it will take to implement the new duties and, importantly, to share that learning across

The collective and the Change Team set out a series of recommendations for defining the scope of the pilots and gathering learning in a new paper. Read it here.

Homelessness prevention pilots paper from the Everyone Home collective

It comes after the Scottish Government announced £4million of funding in 2025-26 to pilot and scale up prevention work. The collective welcomed the pilots and resources as an opportunity to ensure that the statutory prevention framework is robust for full implementation of the new duties.

Everyone Home also said this work will also ensure that local practice and national policy is aligned and strengthened around the foundations that need to be laid so the housing and homelessness system turned towards a prevention focus.

Everyone Home is a collective of 36 academic and third sector organisations focused on housing and homelessness in Scotland.

All in for Change is the national platform for people closest to the issue of homelessness in Scotland, through personal experience or working in direct advice and support roles. The Change Team acts as a feedback loop between people working in and experiencing homelessness now, and decision makers in local and national government and across housing, health and social care.

March Network Briefing

The latest Network Briefing brings news on the work of Fair Way Scotland, Housing First Scotland, and the Everyone Home collective. And you’ll find reports and research from Shelter Scotland, Rock Trust, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, and more.

March and April training bulletin

Since the last training bulletin, we delivered a refreshed equality and human rights course which learners described as “superb” and launched our very first blended rough guide course as flexible eLearning and a live workshop.

We also finished a series of four lectures to trainee doctors and medical students, sharing the stories of people experiencing homelessness and the transformational impact that medical teams can have when they are more human. 

Here is a summary of what is coming up in March and April, perfect for lifelong learners, actioning your annual appraisal or for designing a team training plan.  

What’s new?  

  • Join Clan Childlaw for a short training session about the new law that public authorities need to be compliant with to ensure children’s rights are fully realised. Reserve a ticket for 30 April.  
  • Our brand-new digital learning space is ready for you to explore and perfect for staff, volunteer and board inductions. Get in touch to talk about delivering one of our courses or something bespoke across your organisation.  

 
Upcoming Homeless Network Scotland training dates 

We bring good vibes, a blend of direct and academic evidence, and you bring the questions. Our online training sessions are a great opportunity to network, share examples of good practice and learn from experts.  

  • Homelessness stigma; a conversation 18 March 
  • The unequal risk; an equality and human rights lens on 3 April 
  • Trauma informed approaches; beyond buzzwords to better outcomes 24 April 

Training and events about navigating the immigration system 

Navigating the immigration and housing system is increasingly complex, especially with new immigration rule updates that mean people who arrived seeking safety in the UK via a dangerous journey will normally be refused citizenship. There are lots of helpful events to better understand people’s rights and eligibility to public funds, including housing and homelessness assistance.  

  • Free series of trainings about resisting the hostile environment in public services with Social Workers Without Borders, Migrants Organise and PAFRAS. Running March – July and starting with The Power of Words: Reframing the Migration Narrative on 18 March  
  • Free seminar to celebrate World Social Work Day with the Scottish Association of Social Work about supporting young people seeking asylum in the UK, on 20 March 

Wider training and webinars for the homelessness workforce 

  • Frontline Network run a series of free training for the workforce including suicide awareness and professional resilience 

To suggest a training topic you would like to see on our programme, or to send us details of webinars, learning events or workshops for including in the next training bulletin, please email laura@homelessnetwork.scot