Questions in the Scottish Parliament on Homelessness and Rough Sleepers (Glasgow City Council)
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Homelessness 1. Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP): To ask
the Scottish Government how homeless people might be assisted this
winter by the removal of the requirement to be found
unintentionally homeless being a precondition of receiving local
authority accommodation. (S5O-03815) The Minister for Local
Government, Housing and Planning (Kevin Stewart): Our vision
is to support everyone who is at risk of becoming homeless,
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Homelessness1. Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Government how homeless people might be assisted this winter by the removal of the requirement to be found unintentionally homeless being a precondition of receiving local authority accommodation. (S5O-03815) The Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning (Kevin Stewart): Our vision is to support everyone who is at risk of becoming homeless, or who is experiencing homelessness, to have a settled home. By making assessment of intentionality discretionary for local authorities, we are eliminating one of the barriers that people face to receiving the support that they need. That will ensure that front-line staff can focus on providing a prompt and person-centred approach, as set out in their local rapid rehousing transition plans, and will help more people to get into a settled home quickly. That change to how the legislation operates was recommended by the Government’s homelessness action group, and I was happy to accept it—as I accept all its recommendations. Angus MacDonald: I welcome the commitment from the minister that local authorities will no longer turn away homeless applicants on the basis that they are deemed to be intentionally homeless—a label that does not, as the minister knows, always reflect the true nature of an individual’s circumstances, which might be filled with strife and hardship. Will the minister outline how the changes will ensure fairness for homeless applicants who have endured circumstances such as marital splits, rent arrears and time spent in prison? Kevin Stewart: The intention is that the changes to the legislation will make things fairer for folk such as those whom Mr MacDonald has described. It is recognised that under the previous rules many people who were assessed as being intentionally homeless had experienced difficulties in their lives that were outwith their control; for example, relationship breakdown, family issues, difficulty paying rent and mental health issues. Now, local authorities have the flexibility to investigate, which will mean that people can get the individual support that they need when they need it most. Sarah Boyack (Lothian) (Lab): I thank the minister for his answer. One of the issues that has come up in my casework is that people are homeless, or cannot get the right accommodation, because of a lack of suitable housing for them. How will the rapid transition housing approach lead to permanent accommodation for people who have been homeless, or whom we are trying to prevent from becoming homeless? Kevin Stewart: If Ms Boyack wants to highlight to me any such cases that she has come across, I will be more than willing to look at them. Key to the approach is a person-centred approach; it is about finding the right accommodation for folks. Our housing first pilot is going quite well, and I recently met housing conveners at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and asked them to continue to look at what housing is required in their areas. Parliament is well aware that we offer flexibility in the subsidy for housing that is specialist housing, is wheelchair accessible or has more bedrooms. Local authorities and housing associations should take advantage of the current affordable housing programme to ensure that their housing meets the needs of people in their areas. Jenny Gilruth (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP): Can the minister set out how the Scottish Government will monitor and report on the effects of changes in respect of intentionality in homelessness? Kevin Stewart: We will continue to collect data about the numbers of people who are assessed as being intentionally homeless, using the information from homelessness applications to local authorities. As always, the data will be analysed and published twice a year. It will help us to understand not just changes to the numbers of people who are assessed as being intentionally homeless, but whether there are changes in the characteristics of people who are found to be intentionally homeless and in the outcomes that they achieve.
In November 2020, we will commence a
review of how local authorities have implemented their new
discretionary power to investigate for intentionality and its
impact. That review will report on all its outcomes by July
2021. Rough Sleepers (Glasgow City Council)5. Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con): To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on its winter planning with Glasgow City Council for rough sleepers. (S5O-03819) The Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning (Kevin Stewart): Robust cold weather plans are in place in Glasgow and across Scotland. We support local areas in that planning, which was tested and proved successful during the extreme bad weather in early 2018. Outreach teams engage proactively with anyone who appears to have the intention of sleeping outside, to ensure that they get the support that they need to resolve their situation. To support that, I have provided an additional £174,000 this winter to help people to stay safe and warm. I welcome the news that, after discussions and weather monitoring by partners, the Glasgow winter night shelter will open on Thursday night, three days earlier than scheduled. Adam Tomkins: Glasgow City Council is moving to a rapid rehousing model in order to tackle homelessness in the city. That move has been criticised by a number of stakeholders and charities. This week, council papers revealed that the Scottish Government funding that is available for the rapid rehousing transition plan is “significantly less than what we bid for to enable us to meet all of the targets set out in our plan.” Why is the minister underfunding Glasgow’s homelessness strategy by so much that it now seems destined to fail? Kevin Stewart: We are not at all underfunding the transition to the rapid rehousing model. I increased the amount of money that is available from £15 million to £24 million, having taken cognisance of some of the feedback that we received. As I have said previously in the chamber, that money should be used for the transition. Glasgow City Council has its own homelessness budget, and it is responsible for homelessness services. The transition money is to be used to allow the council to change services and to bend spend in existing budgets, so that money can be spent in better ways. I am very happy that we now have rapid rehousing transition plans from most local authorities, and we have had second iterations from most of those. My officials are working with local authorities to help them to refine the plans so that we get things right for the most vulnerable people in our society. The emphasis should not be on the additional money that the Government is providing but on how we change local authorities’ current spend in order to tackle homelessness. I reiterate that homelessness services are the responsibility of local authorities. Pauline McNeill (Glasgow) (Lab): This month, temperatures have fallen to as low as -9.9°C. I welcome what the minister said about Glasgow winter night shelter opening three days earlier than scheduled; usually, it opens on 1 December. However, Bethany Christian Trust’s night shelter in Edinburgh opened on 23 September this year—nearly two and a half months earlier than 1 December. Is the minister satisfied with there being such disparity? When the temperature drops as low as 0°C, surely there must be a better way of co-ordinating provision and ensuring that there is emergency provision to get people off the streets. If we are too late for this year, will the minister ensure that what happened this year does not happen again next year? We cannot just leave things to Glasgow’s night shelter; we must have provision for people who are sleeping rough on the streets in such temperatures. Kevin Stewart: We are reliant on our third sector partners to provide night shelters. We have provided money to enable Bethany’s night shelter to open earlier. There have been discussions between my officials and Glasgow City Mission, and I am glad that it has decided to open its shelter earlier than was initially planned. We will continue to discuss the matter with the night shelter. If it wants to open earlier in the year, I would be happy to have a discussion about what funding we can provide to enable it to do so. However, we are reliant on its decision—it is a matter for the shelter. I am glad that the opening date this year has moved to 28 November and I am happy to have a discussion about when it should open next year. Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): I am glad that the night shelter will be opening early. However, we know that it will not have adequate capacity for the 150 or so asylum seekers who face the imminent threat of being deliberately made destitute by Serco through its lock-change eviction policy. In addition, those people will not have access to the rehousing policies that were mentioned earlier. I know that the Government is working on that, and I am grateful that I have a meeting arranged next week with the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government to discuss the matter. However, can the minister say anything now about the progress that is being made on the urgent need for substantial additional capacity in emergency accommodation in the days and weeks to come? Kevin Stewart: As Mr Harvie well knows, we are restricted in what we can do by United Kingdom legislation, although I wish that that were not the case. The legislation on such people having no recourse to public funds is inhumane and horrendous. I know that the cabinet secretary, Aileen Campbell, has been working very hard on trying to find solutions for those folks. As Mr Harvie rightly points out, there are more meetings on the matter next week. As a Government, we will continue to do all that we can within our powers and within the law. However, we need a change in the law at UK level so that we can do even better for those folks. Mr Harvie can be assured that the Government will do all that it can to ensure that those people are safe. Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP): Can the minister set out how the work of the homelessness and rough sleeping action group is helping to identify further action that is required to tackle rough sleeping across all local authorities, and how the £50 million investment fund that was established to support homelessness prevention has been used to carry out such actions? Kevin Stewart: In response to the 70 recommendations that the action group made, in November last year we published “Ending Homelessness Together: High Level Action Plan”, which sets out our five-year plan to end homelessness in Scotland. Implementing the action plan will transform the system to ensure that our combined efforts are focused on helping people who are at risk of homelessness to ensure that they are supported to find and keep a permanent home. One of the key points is that emergency shelters should be used only for extreme situations. As I outlined, the shift to rapid rehousing is a major way forward, along with our housing first pilots, which are doing immensely well given that 95 per cent of folk are now keeping their tenancies. We will continue to ensure that the right investment goes in at the right time so that the plan does all that it can to ensure that our most vulnerable people are safe and warm. The Presiding Officer (Ken Macintosh): That concludes portfolio questions on communities and local government. I offer my apologies to John Finnie and Mike Rumbles.
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