Organisations and campaigners want faster gains
Homelessness charities, academics and those with experience of homelessness have published urgent priorities for the coming year to combat the problem of homelessness.
The Everyone Home collective wants to make faster gains on key fronts in 2022, by connecting knowledge, capacity and networks – drawn from across the third and academic sectors – with a public sector in Scotland facing unprecedented challenges.
Maggie Brünjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, which facilitates the collective said: “Housing was our first line of defence against COVID-19 before vaccines and the other measures we have in place now. The pandemic brought into sharp focus how linked our home, health and wellbeing are and shone a brighter light on rough sleeping as the public health emergency it always was.
“We know the pandemic and its aftermath will create conditions that create homelessness — loss of employment or reduced hours, rent arrears, deeper poverty and the breakdown of personal relationships and living arrangements. To prevent this, we need to protect the progress that has been made and make faster gains on the big issues that drive homelessness.”
At the start of the pandemic, the collective set out three immediate priorities: more homes for good health; no return to rough sleeping; and no evictions into homelessness.
Since then, the collective has collaborated with the Scottish Government, local authorities and housing associations to implement shared priorities around these measures.
They now underpin the collective’s approach for 2022 – setting out what matters and why – along with the specific role that the Everyone Home collective will contribute.
Brünjes added: “The emergency legislation introduced in the Scottish Parliament early in the pandemic played a vital role in protecting people’s homes – and may in part have contributed to the reduction in homelessness reported during the first year of lockdown.
“We need to build from this with an end to evictions into homelessness, the prevention of avoidable evictions along with greater focus on reducing poverty and better joined up working across all sectors and services.”
