Scotland put new effort into tackling rough sleeping last winter. Jane Morgan looks at how it’s working so far and what is next on the agenda.
In Autumn 2017 the Scottish Government set up a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG). The group was asked to provide recommendations to the Scottish Government: ways to minimise rough sleeping in winter 17/18; how to eradicate rough sleeping for good; ways to transform temporary accommodation; and how to bring about an end to homelessness in Scotland.
The group worked very quickly, first meeting in early October and agreeing recommendations for winter 2017/18 by the end of November.
Why last winter? I asked Shona Stephen, one of the 12 members of the group and chief executive of Queens Cross Housing Association in Glasgow, who previously worked on homelessness legislation in Scottish Government prior to joining Queens Cross and explains: ‘We have a good legislative basis. We had the approaches to make up the jigsaw but they needed to work better and to fit better together. The impact of financial austerity policies on the most vulnerable made this all the clearer and more urgent by 2017.’
The key themes and recommendations identified by the Group for that winter focused on:
- Maximising the local Housing Options approach (see later)
- Triage and prioritising those with highest need; Assertive and empowered outreach
- ‘By name’ lists with multi-agency access
- Personalised budgets where other solutions not working
- Increased emergency provision where needed.
So this was mainly, but not only, about ways of working. Views from the Frontline, a report co-produced by Aberdeen Cyrenians, Simon Community Scotland and Streetwork, sets out why practice last winter was different and more effective. It also illustrates how, while pursuing the general recommendations, there were different gaps and different actions that were needed in the four cities where it was focussed.
For example, an Inter-Agency Street Network (ISN) established in Glasgow the year before provided a basis for acting on recommendations but an ISN needed to be set up in Edinburgh. These networks did not receive specific additional funding. The £400,000 additional resources went in relatively small sums to: a variety of facilities, to outreach and to personalised budgets. They were judged to have been important in driving decisions, enabling rapid implementation and being a catalyst for action.
The frontline view was a crucial element of the group’s work throughout. So too, Shona Stephens emphasises, was hearing the lived experiences of those who have experience of homelessness. A first report for the group in winter 2017 drew on the experiences of 122 people. The final report, Aye We Can, reflected focus groups involving over 400 people facilitated by front line workers and often attended by group members.
The Group itself had broad membership – third sector organisations working directly with the homeless, a local network body, housing associations, local authorities, pressure groups and academia. Suzanne Fitzpatrick of Heriot Watt University and her colleagues provided essential evidence with input too from Cardiff University. Both are centres of expertise on this topic.
The first objective of minimising rough sleeping in winter 2017/18 meant that the group’s work moved from quickly addressing that specific to a more holistic perspective. In other words, they then went on to look – but still at pace- at prevention and at whole system recommendations.
As the Group’s final report sets out, prevention of homelessness has two key but rather different aspects – addressing the wider causes of homelessness and early intervention with high risk groups. It says that ‘above all other factors, homelessness is a result of poverty’ with contributory factors of in-work poverty, approaches to social security and housing cost (relating to supply).
Reflecting that, one recommendation identifies the need for Personal Housing Plans to recognise financial hardship and not inadvertently try to solve a housing and/or support need at the same time as pushing someone further into poverty or destitution.
For those at high risk of rough sleeping and homelessness more generally, the report emphasises the importance of plans being agreed as quickly as possible. High-risk groups are generally well known but with migrants an increasing focus in recent years. Shona Stephen emphasised to me the importance of working with young people who have often had adverse childhood experiences with resultant trauma requiring intensive support.
Whatever the success of prevention, some will be in crisis. The report speaks clearly on this: ‘An effective response to homelessness when it does occur will remain essential to provide immediatesecurity to people at risk and to ensure that episodes are brief and non-recurrent.’
It is not possible to do full justice to the report’s discussion and recommendations here. But they include flexible delivery of Housing Options services in order to reach all who need a response. Housing Options is the Scottish label for the information and advice process that councils use in Scotland when someone approaches them with a housing problem. It should help people explore all options, reflecting their personal circumstances, and address underlying issues such as debt or mental health.
Next comes making Rapid Re-housing more of a reality, with temporary accommodation part of a clear pathway to settled accommodation. Linked to this, the report considers local authority assessment of housing need and housing supply – with the latter more of a challenge in some parts of Scotland than others.
Housing First is recommended as the rapid-rehousing response for those with complex needs and has been given huge impetus in Scotland by the charity Social Bite. Its founder, Josh Littlejohn, was a member of the action group and Social Bite announced in August that monies raised would support the ‘biggest adoption of the Housing First model in Europe’. The first set of projects will be funded until 2021 across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Aberdeen and Dundee with the aim of supporting just over 200 people.
Some £2.5 million of funding from Social Bite will help homelessness charities deliver the comprehensive support that many vulnerable people need to sustain a tenancy and break the cycle of homelessness. This will build on smaller projects such as those run in Edinburgh and by Turning Point in Glasgow.
My direct interest is as a member of Glasgow’s Integrated Joint Board (IJB) for Health and Social Care. The board is responsible for directing the joint planning and delivery of all of Glasgow’s community health and social care services. Its membership consists of 8 Glasgow councillors, 8 Health Board non-executive directors and seven wider stakeholders. Shona Stephen represents the third sector on the IJB.
In May, Glasgow’s IJB Care considered proposals to move more quickly on Housing First than had been anticipated in taking forward its homelessness strategy. The project will access Wheatley Group tenancies for 54 of this vulnerable group who were in emergency accommodation. The moves were to take place in a staged way over August. The Salvation Army as willing to reconfigure its support to a Housing First model based on its experience in Cardiff. So shared learning between Scotland and Wales continues, in building and using evidence and also in practice.
While this progress on Housing First is welcome, no-one would pretend that is job done. Better service was provided to actual and potential rough sleepers last winter but the number of individuals rough sleeping across Scotland – if measured by those who said they rough slept before registering as homeless – may have been stable rather than declined. (Data collection is complex and could be helpfully improved as an interim report of the action group set out.)
In Glasgow, activity to prevent rough sleeping will be co-ordinated this winter. More generally, the 2015-2020 strategy already included focus on prevention, involvement and improved access to housing, in line with much of HARSAG’s work. But this is work in progress with the Scottish Housing Regulator noting the need to improve the volume and rapidity of referrals for housing from the homelessness service and for reduced delays on the part of some housing associations. (All local authorities will submit Rapid Rehousing plans to Scottish Government by the end of 2018.)
On the ground, a City Ambition Network already takes a collaborative approach to meeting the needs of those most in danger and excluded. But the continuing need for effective joint working lies behind the IJB’s recent consideration of an ‘alliance’ approach to procurement of provided services.
Against this commitment and effort, the impact of financial constraints – both on those at risk of homelessness and on services – will remain a challenging context.
(1) Papers presented to the Integrated Joint Board and minutes of IJB meetings are available at the website of the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership. glasgowcity.hscp.scot/publications-meetings
Jane Morgan is an elected member of Glasgow City Council and a member of Glasgow’s Integrated Joint Board for Health and Social Care