Scottish Churches Housing Action - no room for homelessness in Scotland

churches housing action against homelessness

Since 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive have taken homelessness more seriously than before. Two major pieces of legislation were brought in during the Parliament's first term.
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 brought in basic changes. The main provisions are:
	Each council has to prepare a homelessness strategy for its area
	Each council has to provide free advice and assistance on homelessness
	Each homeless person applying gets temporary accommodation while their case is being considered
	A new right for homeless applicants to a review of the council’s decision in their case
	A duty on housing associations to assist councils by providing housing for homeless applicants
	Basic rights will be introduced for people living in hostels – ministers will issue these, probably during 2004
	The introduction of ‘common housing registers’ – shared waiting lists between councils and housing associations
	Changes to who is entitled to apply for a council house.
But these changes did not get over all the difficulties of the older law. In 2002, the Scottish Executive announced a new target - by 2012 there would be a home for everyone in Scotland who needs one.
The Homelessness (Scotland) Act 2003 paves the way for this. The main provisions are:
	'Priority need’ is to be extended in stages, so that by 2012, there will be no priority – everyone who is homeless will be entitled to the full range of help
	People who make themselves intentionally homeless will get temporary accommodation, and help with their problems
	Ministers may suspend the ‘local connection’ rules, thus preventing councils referring homeless applicants to another area.
The new laws will be implemented in stages, so not all provisions are operational straight away. Anyone needing help with a particular case should get skilled housing advice - contact the Scottish Churches Housing Action for addresses or try Shelterline 0808 800 4444 (freephone).
The Code of Guidance on Homelessness is published by the Scottish Executive to advise on implementing the law. It is being reviewed - find the current version on the Scottish Executive website by typing 'Code of Guidance on Homelessness' into the search facility on the publications page: www.scotland.gov.uk. Why did the law need changing? The original law - dating from 1977 - set hurdles for people going to their local authority for help when they were homeless. The hurdles were:

Are you homeless?

Did you make yourself intentionally homeless?

Are you at risk of violence or harassment?

Are you in priority need?

Do you have a local connection?

‘ Priority need’ applied if there was a child or a pensioner in the household, if the homelessness was caused through a disaster such as fire or flood, or if the applicant had some form of vulnerability. At each stage in the assessment, applicants would be filtered out of the process. Only one-third of applicants got housed – others got ‘advice and assistance’, but they were still homeless.

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Scottish Churches Housing Action - no room for homelessness!

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