Queens Cross was praised for two initiatives supporting vulnerable young adults.
A Scottish housing association has been praised by a pan-European project aiming to tackle homelessness.
The ROOF project is a collaboration between nine cities across Europe, giving them the opportunity to share resources and expertise to help homeless people find permanent homes.
Two members of the association, Patricia Vanderbauwhede from Ghent and Liat Rogel from Milan, visited Glasgow to see how Queens Cross Housing Association is helping manage youth homelessness.
The association provides two projects to support vulnerable young people at risk of being made homeless: a 13-person supported accommodation facility designed for young adults who do not feel they are ready to live independently, and a team providing outreach support to around 40 young adults to help sustain them in their own tenancies.
Both elements of the service were highly commended at this year’s UK Housing Awards, and have now attracted interest from ROOF and its parent organisation URBACT, which supports sustainable urban development around Europe.
Queens Cross chief executive, Shona Stephen, said: “We are delighted to be welcoming URBACT to Glasgow. The work they do in benchmarking and identifying best practise in housing is well respected across Europe.
It’s a great honour that they have chosen to come and visit the work we do to support vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness, Providing a home to this demographic is often the easy part, it is the help and support that they need to keep that tenancy going that is crucial if they are to build successful, independent lives. That is what our youth homeless service does so well.”
ROOF project leader Ms Rogel added: “Homelessness is such a complex issue, it only makes sense to work on it in an integrated and collaborative matter. Glasgow is part of a network of nine cities that will have the opportunity to exchange and learn from each other in order to improve their local situation, together with local stakeholders.
“Our visit to Glasgow helps us understand better the local situation and the services offered and we think it can offer a lot to ROOF project and to the city partners.”
