Expert round up: ending homelessness in Scotland

Our expert panel reflect on Scotland’s 10-year programme to put an end to homelessness and the challenges that lie ahead
Marion Gibbs leads the homelessness team at the Scottish Government

We can’t ignore the success in meeting the 2012 homelessness target: But now we need to focus even further on the prevention of homelessness. Local authorities and others are doing lots of work around this and seeing great results and helping more people at the same time.

There are no plans to commence the legislation on local connection: It affects a small percentage of the homeless households and still means someone gets settled accommodation. The current focus is on preventing homelessness and helping people to sustain the accommodation they secure.

Major investment is unlikely to happen: It is important to note that the Scottish government, with partners, is pursuing many different routes to maximise housing supply. We need to be inventive and think laterally about how we can deal with issues.

Better moniting: The Scottish government is developing a monitoring tool for local authorities to use which will monitor prevention activity. Local authorities will have been monitoring their own outcomes but a national tool will enable a clearer national picture to be seen and allows benchmarking and the benefits this brings service improve.

Lessons for other countries: I think it is really about what can be achieved when you get proper partnership and people working really well and honestly with each other. Prevention is key to what is being done and it is important not to lose focus on it.

Professor Isobel Anderson is chair in housing studies at the University of Stirling

Equal access to healthcare for homeless people should be a priority: The homelessness taskforce recognised not only that homelessness is bad for your health, but that it can result in exclusion from the health care available to all. To address this, health and homelessness standards were introduced in 2005 and there is a need for some evaluation of how well they are working.

Fiona King is policy officer at Shelter Scotland

It is by no means job done: The real challenge now is to deliver on the promise that gives every unintentially homeless person the right to a home. Homelessness prevention is key to this, along with partnership working across a range of organisations and bodies. The ongoing recession and welfare reforms represent a huge challenge but also an opportunity to work creatively and develop new solutions.

Services and solutions: The ‘housing options’ approach has the potential to help people get the housing solution they need, in some cases more quickly and effectively than making a homelessness application. The new approach to prevention must continue to focus on providing good quality, person-centred advice and information while observing people’s rights. There is so much good work going on across Scotland by local authorities and their partners but it is important that people get the services and the outcomes they need and want.

The Scottish legislative framework: There is now keen interest in how that commitment translates into outcomes for people. In a time of such scarce resources, tackling the root causes of homelessness in order to prevent a crisis must continue to be the priority. Scotland has been some way behind England in really investing in prevention, but there is currently a fundamental culture change going on

Robert Aldridge is chief executive of Homeless Action Scotland

The full legislation is not yet enacted: There are quite radical proposals for intentional homelessness and the abolition of local connection which are still in the long grass. However even more important than that is ensuring the momentum is maintained and the change in approach to tackling homelessness remains embedded at a time of cutbacks.

Care leavers: We’re conscious that a number of authorities still put young care leavers through the homelessness path rather than preventing their homelessness.

The importance of a culture change: It took a considerable time to move from the culture which sought to ‘ration’ people into or out of the system into one where there is a genuine attempt to find solutions for all those in housing crisis.

Getting the full picture: Everyone agreed that it was not negative if the statistics showed an increase. We wanted to reveal the true extent of homelessness. So there was no pressure to try to drive figures down artificially.

Lessons for others: Lessons from other countries have shown that if the political pressure to make inroads into homelessness drops, homelessness increases. Other countries can learn from us that it is possible to make a significant improvement in homelessness without excessive cost or a massive public backlash and that the results are beneficial.

Clare Mailer is homelessness service manager at Perth and Kinross council

Partner up: A partnership approach with local authority services and the voluntary sector is essential to sustain tenancies and secure routes out of homelessness.

Housing shortage: The lack of affordable has meant local authorities have had to work hard to ensure that service efficiency is maximised (for example, the turnover of void properties is minimised and occupancy levels of all forms of accommodation is maximised) and taken a more proactive approach to homelessness prevention.

Welfare reform: The impact of welfare reform will result in more households facing financial difficulties and greater levels of vulnerability. Housing management practices within councils and social landlords will require a greater focus on support and tenancy sustainment.

Training staff: We have delivered softer skills training to staff such as motivational interviewing and mediation skills. In addition to this, staff required enahanced knowledge and awareness of agencies who can assist with the delivery of person-centred housing options. Advice can cover personal circumstances which may not necessarily be housing related, such as debt advice, mental health issues and mediation.

Katey Tabner is research fellow at the Rock Trust

Third sector contribution: The third sector has provided a range of mentoring, mediation, befriending services which utilise resources within communities to great success, however such projects promoting a networks approach need to be available at a national level to maximise benefits.

Invest in tenancy support: Safeguarding the funds to ensure tenancy support is an increasingly important issue, especially at a time of cut backs.

View the full discussion on homelessness in Scotland here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2013/mar/22/live-discussion-scotland-homelessness