New Beginning For Glasgow’s Homelessness Services
The closure of Glasgow’s “warehouse” style homeless hostels marks a new beginning for homelessness services in the city, Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said today.
Mr Maxwell spoke to members of the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership during a visit to the new Fordneuk Street Supported Accommodation Project for people with alcohol problems, to mark the completion of Glasgow’s Hostels Decommissioning Programme.
His visit follows the closure, last month, of James Duncan House – the last of Glasgow City Council’s three all-male homeless hostels and their replacement by a range of new, smaller facilities designed to better address individuals’ specific needs.
The final residents of James Duncan House have been re-housed at the Fordneuk Street facility, which has 38 ensuite rooms for men and women with alcohol problems who might otherwise sleep rough or live in inappropriate accommodation.
The Scottish Government has invested £60million in the decommissioning scheme over the last three years and Mr Maxwell today paid tribute to the hard work of the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership and said its achievement was a great example to others.
But he also acknowledged there was still more to be done to ensure all homeless people in the city received the accommodation and support they needed.
Mr Maxwell said: “Glasgow’s Hostels Decommissioning Programme has been a major undertaking and represents a seismic shift in the delivery of services in the city. All those involved in the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership have played their part and deserve credit for this achievement.
“The Scottish Government has provided significant funding to support the reprovisioning of services in Glasgow and this has helped the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership to put in place smaller-scale, more targeted facilities which aim to address homeless people’s individual difficulties and get their lives back on track.
“Of course we cannot afford to be complacent, because Glasgow – and Scotland – still faces considerable challenges when it comes to providing homeless people with the support they need.
“But there’s no doubt that the modernised facilities now in place are far superior to the ‘warehouse’ hostels that preceeded them and they give us a strong base from which to continue making progress, not just in Glasgow, but right across Scotland.”
Councillor Elaine McDougall, Glasgow City Council’s Executive Member for Social Work, said: “The opening of this project represents the culmination of a huge effort to close our three large-scale, male hostels.
“Glasgow has taken significant strides on homelessness in recent years and Fordneuk Street is a great example of our recent work.
“It is for people who often struggle to engage with services and it will provide a safe place for those who may otherwise sleep rough or live in inappropriate, insecure accommodation.
“Our services are now more responsive to individual needs and this flexibility is helping people back into mainstream housing.”
In 2000, the Glasgow Review Team Report assessed efforts to tackle the problems of street homelessness in Glasgow and sought to determine what should be done to improve the provision of accommodation, in particular hostel accommodation, and improve support for people with complex support needs. A recommendation was made that all large scale ‘warehouse’ style hostels where individuals had been placed with little or no support be closed and replaced with reprovisioned community based services.
In the wake of these recommendations, the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership was created in 2002 being a joint partnership between Glasgow City Council, Greater Glasgow Health Board, and Glasgow Homelessness Network (representing the Voluntary Sector).
The three hostels closed under the programme were:
James Duncan House (331 Bell Street ): closed March 2008
Pete McCann House (22 Kyle Street): closed July 2006
Robertson House: (260 Broad Street): closed February 2005
