Homelessness in Scotland
Marion Gibbs
Scottish Government
Background
• Homelessness Task Force
• Homelessness Monitoring Group
• Legislation:
– Housing (Scotland) Act 2001
• Temporary accommodation and advice and
assistance to all homeless households
– Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003
• 2012 homelessness target
Context
• Budget – no direct budget – devolved to
local authorities to prioritise
• £500,000 for housing options hubs one
year)
• In 2009/10, around 50,000 homelessness
assessments (1% of population)
• 40% of LA lets and 26% of housing
association lets to homeless households
2012 Homelessness target
• All unintentionally homeless households
will have the right to settled
accommodation
• Removal of the “priority need” test
• 31 December 2012
Progress
• In 2009/10, 85% of all homelessness
assessments regarded as being in
priority need – an increase of 2% from
previous year
• In 2006/07, the first year after the
Ministerial statement, priority need
assessments stood at 54%
Housing options and hubs
• Scottish Government/COSLA Joint 2012
Steering group
• Prevention of homelessness –
development of housing options hubs
• All local authorities in Scotland in one of
five regional hubs
• Partnership working, joint training,
commissioning research
Contacts etc
• Marion.gibbs@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
• 2012 SG/COSLA Joint Group:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-
Environment/Housing/access/homeless/20
12Target
• The hubs:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-
Environment/Housing/access/homeless/H
omelessnessPrevention