Ending homelessness together: annual report to the Scottish Parliament, November 2024

Progress against actions to respond quickly and effectively whenever homelessness happens

19. [Updated] Support local authorities with their efforts to reduce the use of unsuitable accommodation

20. Support local winter planning, including efforts by partners to end the use of night shelter and dormitory-style provision

21. Support people engaged in street begging

22. Prevent homelessness for those with no recourse to public funds

23. Learn from recent initiatives and set out a broader range of accommodation options in crisis situations

24. Revise legislative arrangements for intentionality and amend intentionality definition to focus more closely on ‘deliberate manipulation’

25. Consider options to legally enforce the temporary accommodation standards

• The Scottish Government is making more than £14 billion available to councils in 2024-25 to deliver a range of services, including homelessness services.
• Local authorities are expected to comply with the Unsuitable Accommodation Order and to work towards meeting the standards in the Scottish Government’s temporary accommodation standards framework until it becomes legally enforceable.
• We know the level of demand for homelessness services in some areas is making it difficult for councils to meet their statutory duties. The Scottish Government has provided targeted funding for those councils with the greatest temporary accommodation pressures.
• We continue to support efforts by partners to end the use of night shelter provision. In 2023-24, the Scottish Government provided funding of £241,340 towards the operation of rapid rehousing welcome centres.
• Bethany Christian Trust and Glasgow City Mission have published reports on the use of the centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh. During winter 2023-24, the Edinburgh centre supported 787 individuals and Glasgow supported 1,091 individuals, with most guests moving on to positive destinations.
• The Scottish Government meets regularly with representatives of homelessness organisations across Scotland to evaluate the extent of rough sleeping and begging in the areas where it is concentrated. In 2023-24, we provided £72,500 of funding to third sector organisations in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth and Kinross for personalised budgets so that frontline staff could meet the immediate needs of people at risk of or experiencing rough sleeping.
• We provide annual funding to Homeless Network Scotland to facilitate Fair Way Scotland.^[4]
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has commissioned the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University to undertake a three-year evaluation of Fair Way Scotland. A second-year progress report was published in September 2024. In 2023-24, Fair Way partners came together to support 1,229 people facing destitution and homelessness in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• The Scottish Government’s Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund has helped bring almost 1,300 empty properties back into use, providing accommodation for over 2,100 displaced people from Ukraine.
• We have temporarily paused work to narrow the definition of intentionality to focus on deliberate manipulation while we tackle the housing emergency. Very few households are assessed as intentionally homeless^[5] but we remain committed to giving people the support they need to avoid homelessness where possible.
• Local authorities have asked us to consider the timing of further legislative changes. We are giving local authorities the opportunity to comply voluntarily with the temporary accommodation standards framework in advance of enforcement work.