Tag: rough sleeping

How Scotland’s eight relevant bodies can act as one to drive deep change

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Homeless Network Scotland chief executive Maggie Brünjes discusses how the eight ‘relevant bodies’ responsible for delivering the Ask and Act duties can use their collective influence – not only to prevent homelessness, but to drive the upstream change needed to tackle its root causes. These public bodies, listed in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, are health boards, Integrated Joint Boards, local authorities, police, registered social landlords, prisons and young offenders’ institutions, social security and special health boards.

For as long as most of us can remember, the homelessness sector has operated as the emergency service. As the Hard Edges Scotland research starkly put it, too often left to “carry the can” for the missed opportunities to help people earlier.

We meet people when their housing, health and relationships have already broken down – when they are already carrying recent or life-long trauma and adversity. The sector provides a vital safety net, but it is ultimately too late. We are the ambulance after the event.

Ask and Act changes that. For the first time, it moves the entire system upstream. The eight relevant bodies named in the Act will now be required to ask about people’s housing situation in their everyday interactions – creating real, routine opportunities to prevent homelessness before it takes hold.

Aside from ensuring the new duties are adequately resourced, their success will rest on three underpinning factors: people, services and systems.

People first

The term ‘Ask and Act’ was coined by people with personal experience of homelessness. While professionals had wrestled with the complexity and enormity of defining the duties, a group of people who had navigated the homelessness system cut through it all: “Just ask.” Just ask people what they need.

That simple, powerful insight is at the heart of this reform. The ‘Ask’ is not a tick-box about housing status. It is about asking people what they actually need to stay housed. It puts the person, not the process, first.

The evidence is clear: preventing homelessness spares people deep trauma and upheaval – whether they are on their own or together in a family. It protects their mental wellbeing, financial stability, security, dignity and relationships. These new duties are not another ambulance after the event. They are the routine check-up that stops the crisis before it starts.

The homelessness sector has every reason to feel hopeful. This is exactly where we have always wanted the system to be: upstream, early and person-led.

Supporting services: where they can and cannot reach

Yet there is a stubborn myth that we can somehow fix services to fix people – that homelessness is simply an individual problem that competent professionals can solve with the right advice, support or rehabilitation, and that preventing it just requires us to act earlier.

This framing misses the deeper reality. Homelessness is driven by structural causes: poverty, the chronic undersupply of social homes, UK policy on welfare and immigration and inequalities baked into our housing system that hit certain groups hardest. These are not failures of people or of service delivery. They are the root conditions that keep producing homelessness.

Ask and Act takes prevention upstream, where services across the eight bodies can make a real and transformative difference – preventing individual homelessness earlier and reducing the risk of other problems developing or worsening. However, even the best services cannot stop the main flow into homelessness. Waiting for that will keep us trapped in a cycle where the flood of new cases never slows because the upstream drivers remain unchanged.

The eight relevant bodies have a powerful opportunity to use Ask and Act not just for individual prevention, but as a platform to tackle these systemic issues too.

Integrating systems: no wrong door

Scottish Government guidance on Ask and Act is in the pipeline and will be crucial. It will help each body embed the duties in its own practice. But homelessness prevention has never been – and never can be – the responsibility of a single agency.

People at the hard edges often face overlapping crises: poverty, trauma, addiction, mental health and offending. They are forced to retell their deepest pain to disconnected services that deal with one issue at a time. Siloed systems do not just fail them; they deepen the harm.

Ask and Act creates the chance to connect health, justice, housing, social care and social security so they work together around a person’s full needs, rather than one issue at a time. It also gives these bodies the platform to feed back what they are seeing on the ground and drive action on the upstream drivers.

Acting together, the eight relevant bodies have formidable leverage – and we urge them to use it. By acting as one they can ease the unsustainable pressure on their own services, deliver better outcomes for the people they support every day and tackle the root causes that keep driving demand.

What success looks like

Ask and Act is pivotal. Investment in it is crucial. But we will get a far greater return if the eight bodies combine their strengths and act together by:

  • Learning how to ask and act and creating the right environments for preventative services. 
  • Committing to joined up, cross-sector working that puts the person’s full needs first, rather than passing people from service to service.
  • Using their collective observations and influence to reduce new demand by tackling the upstream drivers – more homes, reduced poverty and inequality and more inclusive welfare and immigration policies.

When implementation is strong and joined-up working becomes real, Ask and Act will stop being a duty on paper and become the new normal: a system that keeps people housed.

The Ask and Act duties make explicit the responsibility of the wider public sector – at both national and local level – to ensure no one in Scotland is forced to live without a home. Now we need the resources to deliver, the ambition from every relevant body to match those intentions, and the courage to go much further upstream and change the conditions that keep creating homelessness in the first place.

February Network Briefing

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The first Network Briefing of 2026 follows a busy start to the year, with the Scottish Budget and Spending Review, plus the announcement of a new national housing agency, More Homes Scotland.

Read the briefing for commentary and reaction to those events, plus all the latest research, news, updates and opportunities from within and beyond our sector. And this month we welcome a guest contribution to the Network Briefing from the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan.  

Read on for more and stay in the loop – subscribe here to receive your free briefing every month.  

Read the briefing

Housing emergency risks return of communal night shelters, research finds

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People facing homelessness in Scotland are once again at risk of trauma and harm as the housing emergency threatens the return of old-style communal night shelters, experts fear.

The warning, echoed by people with lived experience of using shelters, comes as groundbreaking research from Heriot-Watt University details how Scotland ended use of ‘shared air’ shelters from 2020-2024, following decades of work by the third sector and local and national government.

The University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) sets out evidence of the serious impact communal shelters can have on people, including exposure to infectious disease and violence, and raises concerns the housing crisis could see more shelters open to fill gaps in emergency accommodation. But the research also shows a return to responses that prioritise good support and access to housing is achievable.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the International Journal on Homelessness, provides the first detailed analysis of how Scotland closed its emergency shelters during the pandemic and maintained a shelter-free response from 2020 to 2024.

Scotland’s approach included rapidly relocating residents to single-room accommodation and establishing Welcome Centres as multi-agency triage hubs. Within eight months, this emergency measure had evolved into formal Scottish Government policy to end dormitory-style shelter provision permanently. This was enabled by policy building blocks developed over previous decades, including strong legal rights to housing, a substantial social housing sector and robust welfare protections.

These foundations resulted in Scotland having comparatively low levels of rough sleeping, 40% lower than England, making shelter closure more achievable than in nations with higher rough sleeping rates.

The research also documents the extensive evidence of the harm caused by emergency shelters while demonstrating there is no evidence that shelters provide a pathway to permanent housing.

Shelters can result in:

  • Some people choosing to sleep rough and take other potentially life-threatening risks rather than use shelters
  • Worse health outcomes than receiving no support at all
  • Violence, infectious disease and drug-related harms from communal living
  • Rules and curfews that limit people’s freedom, high stress, stigmatisation and the feeling of being treated like a child
  • Damaged relationships with friends, family and children
  • People dealing with serious challenges trapped in cycles without their needs being met

Lived experience views

Suzanne, who has experienced homelessness and researched other people’s experiences of using services, said: “With the women it is all about safety. A lot of guys didn’t feel safe but what really came across was that women would rather sleep in the street or hook up with a guy to get away from having to go to the shelter.

“If the only alternative is an unregulated shelter, women would swerve towards going somewhere safe instead. A lot of people feel unsafe when they go into a shelter and can be triggered by the environment, causing them trauma and bringing up past trauma. Shelters are a sticking plaster. Until we come up with a solution there’s still a demand for them. We need an alternative.”

James, who also experienced homelessness, said: “My experience of night shelters was after presenting in Edinburgh. I was handed a list of churches where I could sleep on the floor. I had all my stuff with me, I was pointed to a yoga mat and given an itchy blanket.

“I lay uncomfortably cuddled into my backpack as I was worried it would be stolen when I was asleep. I pretty quickly realised many people were injecting legal highs. At some point during the night there was a queue for the toilet.

“People were sharing injecting equipment, and I later learned that at this point there was an HIV outbreak. This was not communicated and presented a serious risk to those arriving who were already struggling and vulnerable. Some of the community I met in that shelter were later sleeping in a mausoleum in a graveyard rather than using shelter accommodation.”

Threats to a shelter-free approach

Critically, the research identifies the serious threats to maintaining Scotland’s shelter-free approach, including:

  • Rising demand pressures: Homelessness applications increased by 10% in a single year (2021/22-2022/23), temporary accommodation use rose 29% in three years, and the Scottish Parliament declared a national housing emergency in May 2024.
  • During winter 2023/24, Glasgow’s Welcome Centre experienced surges in demand that strained resources.
  • Barriers for people with No Recourse to Public Funds: Current restrictions mean this group can only access emergency accommodation for limited periods, pushing vulnerable people towards rough sleeping or creating pressure for shelter provision.
  • Community pressure: In January 2024, a volunteer-run shelter opened in Glasgow despite concerns from people with lived experience about their safety as well as health risks and increased anti-social behaviour in the vicinity.

Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, lead author from Heriot-Watt University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research, said: “Our research demonstrates that ending shelter use is achievable, as Scotland proved between 2020 and 2024. This was possible because of policy foundations built over decades combined with rapid action during the pandemic to relocate shelter residents to single-room accommodation.

“However, this progress is now under serious threat from rising demand, inadequate provision for people with No Recourse to Public Funds, and community pressure to reopen dormitory-style shelters. The evidence is clear that shelters perpetuate harms among exceptionally disadvantaged people and fail to provide pathways to sustainable housing. Returning to dormitory-style provision would represent a significant failure to minimise housing-related harms to those who are most in need of support.

“The key lesson from Scotland’s experience is that shelter-free responses are possible but require both the right policy foundations and sustained commitment to maintain them. Other jurisdictions can learn from Scotland’s approach but must recognise that creating these enabling conditions takes deliberate policy choices and adequate resourcing over time.”

The research acknowledges the important role of the Everyone Home Collective, convened by Homeless Network Scotland, in building cross-sector agreement around a shelter-free vision. Their Welcome Centre approach means providing rapid access to single-room accommodation.

We know the solutions

Maggie Brünjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said: “For too long, the public image of homelessness has been stuck in an outdated stereotype of night shelters – basic, dormitory-style spaces congregating people in crisis, often accepted as inevitable and ‘good enough’ for those at the hardest edges of society.

“This critical new research highlights Scotland’s remarkable achievement in maintaining a shelter-free response from 2020 to 2024, decisively shifting to self-contained temporary accommodation and settled housing in the community. This hard-won progress – driven by leadership from Glasgow and Edinburgh local authorities, adaptive charities that modernised their services and strong Scottish Government policy – now risks reversal amid surging demand and the national housing emergency.

“People with first-hand experience, academics and charities have long made the case that communal shelters cause unnecessary harm and fear. The joint manifesto from the Everyone Home collective and All in For Change unites these interests ahead of the 2026 election, spelling out the solutions that need scaled for a Scotland where everyone has a home. This research shows that real progress is possible – but only through sustained investment and political commitment.”

The research also notes how both Bethany Christian Trust in Edinburgh and Glasgow City Mission, faith-based organisations that previously operated shelters, played important roles in relocating residents during the pandemic and have become providers of the alternative Welcome Centre model.

The researchers now urge policy makers to:

  • Maintain commitment to avoiding dormitory-style emergency provision, recognising that returns to this model represent failures to minimise housing-related harms
  • Address rising demand pressures through increased social housing supply, enhanced homelessness prevention, and adequate resourcing of alternative provision
  • Remove barriers preventing people with No Recourse to Public Funds from accessing emergency accommodation beyond single nights, recognising that current restrictions push vulnerable people towards rough sleeping
  • Invest in and expand alternatives to shelters including single-room accommodation to provide access to mainstream housing with support
  • Recognise that maintaining the policy foundations that have enabled a shelter-free Scotland to be maintained

The research emphasises that Scotland’s experience provides important lessons for homelessness policy globally, particularly in the Global North, demonstrating that reliance on harmful dormitory-style shelters is neither inevitable nor necessary. However, it acknowledges that Scotland’s achievement was enabled by comparatively low rough sleeping levels and specific policy foundations developed over decades.

Read the full paper

Ending destitution for excluded people is possible – if Scotland acts at scale

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Scotland has made significant and internationally notable progress in reducing destitution among people who are blocked from accessing mainstream support because of their immigration status, a major new evaluation has found. But the study warns that provision remains too limited to meet the scale of need.

The independent report examines the impact of Fair Way Scotland, an action-learning partnership providing integrated support for people with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) or restricted or uncertain eligibility.

The model brings together specialist casework, modest financial assistance and access to community-based accommodation, helping people to meet basic needs and stabilise their circumstances. Funders, Scottish Government and charities are coming together today for a launch event to hear findings from the report and explore solutions that will reduce destitution.

The report found clear improvements in people’s safety and wellbeing when they receive consistent casework, access to community-based accommodation and modest financial support through Fair Way Scotland.

Authored by Heriot-Watt University and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the report outlines how these types of support can reduce harm inflicted on people and build a foundation for longer term progress.

Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, Deputy Director, at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE), Heriot-Watt University, said: “This evaluation demonstrates that Scotland has taken significant and internationally notable steps to prevent destitution. But the scale of current provision does not yet match the scale of need.

“We found strong evidence that consistent casework, safe accommodation and small but reliable cash payments reduce harm and support people to progress their immigration cases. The question now is whether Scotland is prepared to expand what clearly works so that no one faces destitution.”

The report highlights the exceptional disadvantage facing people supported through Fair Way Scotland:

  • 93% of those surveyed were destitute
  • Almost one in five were sleeping rough at the point of contact
  • More than half had slept rough in the past year
  • 17% had left accommodation because they did not feel safe

Importantly, outcomes improved the longer people engaged with support. Those receiving help for more than three months were significantly less likely to be sleeping rough, living in overcrowded conditions, moving repeatedly, or going without essentials like food and toiletries.

Demand, however, far exceeds what current resources can meet. The evaluation estimates that around 4,000 people across Scotland require this type of support each year, with the country making great progress by meeting around a quarter of that demand thus far.

Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “This evaluation shows in stark terms both the effectiveness of Fair Way Scotland and the scale of unmet need. The model works – but demand is far beyond what the current system can cope with. Scaling Fair Way Scotland is now urgent, not optional.

“We need coordinated action from all tiers of government. The UK Government, Scottish Government and local councils need to better use the powers they have, underpinned by a clear commitment from housing associations to provide the safe, stable accommodation that is essential to reducing harm. And ultimately the UK Government need to stop using policy to create destitution. 

“If we are serious about preventing destitution, every part of the system must step up together.”

Frontline accounts within the report underline the difference stability can make. Workers describe how access to casework, legal advice and community-based accommodation enables people to progress their status and access support to which they are entitled.

The evaluation also reflects the voices of people directly supported by Fair Way Scotland. Many described how cash payments – usually of £60 a week – allowed them to buy food and travel, restoring dignity and reducing crisis.

The evaluation recognises that Scotland is the only part of the UK with a national strategy that explicitly commits to ending destitution for all, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds or restricted eligibility. Yet, progress remains slow, with local authorities and third sector organisations under increasing pressure.

Human rights lawyer Jen Ang, founder of Lawmanity, said: “Scotland already has more scope to act than many decision-makers realise. The evaluation shows that when existing powers are used confidently and consistently, people can be protected from the deepest harms associated with destitution.

“What stands out in this report is the strength of the evidence for scaling Fair Way Scotland. It offers a lawful, practical and humane approach that reflects Scotland’s commitments to dignity and fairness. The task now is ensuring that these findings translate into action so that support is available to everyone who needs it.”

Key recommendations within the report include:

  • Expanding community‑based accommodation
  • Widening access to specialist legal advice
  • Establishing a hardship fund for those excluded from mainstream support
  • Ensuring councils consistently use the powers available to them.

Beth added: “Scotland has the tools, evidence and experience to end destitution for those currently excluded from mainstream support. What is needed now is the resolve to act at scale. Doing so would prevent severe hardship, reduce avoidable harm and uphold Scotland’s commitments to fairness and dignity.”

Fair Way Scotland is a partnership of third sector organisations seeking to prevent homelessness and destitution among those with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) in Scotland. Key Fair Way Scotland delivery partners include the Scottish Refugee Council, Simon Community Scotland, Turning Point Scotland and Refugee Sanctuary Scotland– supported by Homeless Network Scotland and learning partners Heriot-Watt University and Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Specialist legal expertise is commissioned from a coalition of legal firms: Just Right Scotland, Latta & Co, Legal Services Agency, Settled and Shelter Scotland. COSLA and the Scottish Government are strategic partners, committed to working with Fair Way as part of their commitment to Ending Destitution Together and Ending Homelessness Together.

Read the report

Scotland urged to put ‘housing justice’ at the heart of next election

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People with lived experience of homelessness are uniting with dozens of leading organisations to demand urgent action on Scotland’s worsening housing crisis.

Their joint manifesto was launched at Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference, hosted by Homeless Network Scotland, on 27 and 28 October in Perth. It calls on all political parties to commit to a programme of housing justice that will ensure everyone in Scotland has a safe, secure place to call home.

The scale of the crisis has been laid bare in recent statistics, with more than 17,200 households currently trapped in temporary accommodation, a 6% increase in one year, including over 10,000 children.

Nearly 250,000 people are on waiting lists for a social home, and 40,688 households have applied to their local council for help with homelessness last year. On average, those in temporary accommodation wait 238 days for a settled home.

The call comes from members of Everyone Home, a collective of nearly 40 third and academic sector organisations focused on ending homelessness, and All In for Change, a platform that unites lived experience and practitioner insight of homelessness across Scotland to enable decision-makers to drive real change.

All in for Change said: “In the Change Team, we see every day how the housing emergency hurts people who are homeless and those trying to help them. Frontline workers do amazing work, but they’re trapped in a broken system with too little housing and support to fix it.

“Some of us have been homeless ourselves, so we know the reality first-hand. But we believe this can be made better for others, with real political commitment and funding being used more wisely. We’ve laid out clear expectations for party manifestos, and we’ll keep pushing to shield people from the worst of homelessness in this housing emergency.”

Set almost 18 months after Scotland’s housing emergency was formally declared, the manifesto outlines a practical, values-led approach to resolving a crisis that continues to deepen inequality and exclusion.

It sets out five priority actions for the next Scottish Government, under the banner of SCALE. It calls for the launch of a national ‘Big Build’ programme to dramatically increase the supply of social housing, with a target of nearly 16,000 new homes each year of the next parliament backed by at least £8.8bn.

The manifesto urges political leaders to coordinate support services more effectively, so that housing is fully integrated with health, social care and justice to ensure no-one falls through the cracks. It demands that public funding decisions align with housing priorities, including the use of tax powers and long-term investment plans that can give frontline workers and those they support greater certainty.

It insists that housing rights must be protected and fully resourced, warning that too many local authorities are currently struggling to meet their legal obligations. Finally, it calls for fast-track housing and support for groups facing systemic exclusion, including people affected by poverty, discrimination, trauma, gender-based violence and UK immigration policy.

Maggie Brünjes, chief executive, Homeless Network Scotland, said: “Scotland’s housing emergency is a plan gone wrong, driving homelessness and deepening inequality. To reverse this, we must invest in more social housing, higher incomes, proactive prevention and support that is fully integrated across health, housing, justice and social care. 

“The Everyone Home collective manifesto is a plan to put that right and a call for Housing Justice. Combining first-hand, professional and academic insight, the manifesto outlines real-world measures to reduce inefficient spending, prevent the worst harm among the worst off, and scale solutions for a Scotland where everyone has a home.”

The manifesto launch will take place at Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference, this year titled ‘It’s Personal: the human face of the housing emergency’. The two-day event will shine a light on the real-world, human impact of the crisis, through people with lived experience, advocates and experts sharing knowledge and practical ideas to deliver lasting change.

Helen Murdoch, Asst. Director of Strategic Operations & Development (Scotland) at conference delivery partner The Salvation Army, said: “This year’s conference takes place in the shadow of a housing and homelessness crisis that tests our compassion, our resources and our collective resolve.

“The demand for services that support people experiencing homelessness is far outstripping supply – that must change and change quickly. Conference is an opportunity to explore our role in bringing about that change and The Salvation Army is proud to be an event partner.

“It is also a time to look beyond the headlines and statistics, to recognise and celebrate the extraordinary courage and resilience of teams working in communities, the third sector, local authorities and religious bodies to support people experiencing homelessness.”

Keynote speakers include Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Màiri McAllan MSP, who will address the event, renowned children’s rights campaigner and author Baroness Floella Benjamin, and rising social justice advocate Eireann McAuley, named one of the Young Women’s Movement’s ‘30 under 30′.

Baroness Floella Benjamin OM DBE said: “Having a safe and secure home is the key building block for living a happy and fulfilling life, yet today that basic human need is being denied to too many people. The impact on them is heartbreaking.

“All it takes is the grit, perseverance and determination to face the challenges and to keep on pushing for positive change. There is no shortage of people willing to fight this fight and I support all those who are working to change people’s lives.

“When I address Scotland’s annual homelessness conference I hope to energise and inspire the audience, to bring them joy amid the struggle. I want to remind people that even though it sometimes doesn’t feel like it, the work they do every day can and does change lives. So never give up.”

The launch marks the start of a national conversation aimed at ensuring housing and homelessness are top-tier priorities ahead of the 2026 election.