Housing Emergency Must Be Priority As Holyrood Returns

Transform Community Development as part of a coalition of 40 leading organisations working to end homelessness has called for an urgent Ministerial Statement to update Parliament on the housing emergency, as MSPs prepare to return from their summer break.

The call follows the Prime Minister’s pledge last week that everyone sleeping rough in England would be offered a route off the street by Christmas.

The Everyone Home Collective - an expert group of charities and academics, which includes Transform Community Development- has called for the statement during Parliament’s first week back, while also setting out five tests which it says will help judge Holyrood’s response to the crisis over the course of the new parliamentary term.

The move comes one year after the publication of the Scottish Government’s Housing Emergency Action Plan and just weeks before Ministers publish Scotland’s latest annual statistics on homelessness. Last year’s figures painted a grim picture of the scale of the emergency, showing a record 10,480 children across Scotland stuck in temporary accommodation such as hostels or B&Bs while the number of open homeless cases hit record highs.

The Everyone Home Collective has urged Scottish Ministers to use the Statement to update on what progress has been made since the Action Plan was published and set out what further steps will now be taken.

The Collective has also published a set of five tests, which it says will show if policymakers are serious about tackling Scotland’s housing emergency. These are:

1. Building the minimum 15,693 new social homes each year that expert research shows is needed, backed by £8.8billion of investment.
2. Making tackling homelessness, sustainability, and reducing affordable housing need the top priorities of the new housing agency, More Homes Scotland.
3. Preventing homelessness earlier by placing rights-based early prevention and access to joined-up public services at the heart of Scotland’s response.
4. Delivering a year-on-year reduction in the number of children and families in temporary accommodation over this parliament by making more social homes available and converting temporary tenancies into settled homes.
5. Ending the need for anyone in Scotland to sleep rough at any time of year by using every available option, including scaling up proven support solutions such as Housing First.

Homeless Network Scotland’s Chief Executive Maggie Brünjes said:

“Last week we saw a strong statement of political intent from the Prime Minister on homelessness and rough sleeping in England. As this new session of the Scottish Parliament gets properly underway after the election and summer recess, it is absolutely critical that Scotland now shows similar ambition. One year on from the publication of the Housing Emergency Action Plan, it is only right that Parliament and the public receive an update on what has changed and what further action is urgently needed.

“Our five tests provide a set of clear and measurable standards against which all of us can judge the progress made by politicians over the next five years. This will help ensure that homelessness and the housing emergency remain a national priority over this parliament.

“Homelessness is not inevitable. We know what works, and as MSPs prepare for the new parliamentary term, this is the ideal moment for them to show the public that they grasp the scale of this emergency and are prepared to do what it takes to rise to the occasion.”