DAMP, dangerous wiring, insect infestations and overcrowding…welcome to the reality of temporary accommodation for the homeless in 21st century Scotland.
Shelter case worker Nicola O’Rourke encounters these issues day-after-day in her job, supporting some of the thousands of homeless men, women and children living in temporary accommodation while they wait for councils to assess their application for a permanent home.
There are flats with black mould on the walls or where multiple children have to share a bed. Others have cockroaches, wood lice, fleas (with bite marks to prove it) and dodgy and dangerous appliances. Some are simply miles from friends, family, schools, clinics and benefits services, leaving people isolated and struggling.
In 2015-16 local authorities across Scotland provided an estimated 3.8 million days of temporary accommodation for homeless households, one million of them with children. The average amount of time spent in “temp” is now 24 weeks – almost a third (32 per cent) spent more than six months there.With no enforceable minimum standards in place – something the Scottish Government has told Shelter Scotland it will consider though no action has yet been taken – conditions can be woeful.
“I’ve seen parents sleeping on a tiny two-seater couch in the living room,” O’Rouke says. “They have one space for sleeping, eating, doing homework, everything. A lot of families I’ve worked with over the years said that their mental health was deteriorating. It can cause huge stress.”
She remembers one mother whose anti-social neighbour kept the family awake at night. “Her kids weren’t settling and they were far away from their friends and school,” she adds. “She missed work once, then it became a bit too often and she lost her job. It’s the domino effect – it impacts on everything from health to employment.”
O'Rourke's job at Shelter, she explains, is to fight people’s corner, offering practical help as well as all the technical and legal information that will help them get through it. She knows the score first-hand too, having been homeless herself in the past. “I can show the clients empathy and make sure they get the right help,” she explains.
Right now, Andrew – who the Sunday Herald has agreed not to name in full – is one of those clients. A 57-year-old diabetic, he had been living and working in Russia, near St Petersburg when he developed gangrene. With his marriage also on the verge of collapse, he packed a small suitcase and flew home for urgent surgery. Recovering from amputation in Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital he discovered his relationship was over and though officially fit for discharge he had nowhere to go. The hospital called O’Rouke who visited to offer support. “He was in a really vulnerable condition,” she said.
She helped him make a housing application to North Lanarkshire, where he still had a local connection, and he was relieved to be offered a flat in Cumbernauld. But when he arrived he was shocked by the overriding smell of damp. Water would sometimes run down the walls, with paint and plaster flaking off in chunks as they dried. It was freezing and there was no cooker, which as a diabetic on a special diet was deeply problematic.
Though the cooker was installed within days, heating the two-bedroom flat became an on-going concern. Without the heaters the temperature fell as low as 7 degrees, with them on the costs just piled up to over £50 a week – far more than his £36 basic pension, though a crisis grant and emergency payments from Shelter helped.
The windows let in water and the smell by the cupboard by the door was so bad he had to seal it up with tape. “I was suffering from anxiety and found myself back in and out of hospital,” he says. “I’d had a great job [before] and was having to cope with huge life changes. I was depressed and thinking everyone was against me. Shelter Scotland changed that.”
O’Rourke helped Andrew apply for a permanent flat from Southside Housing in Glasgow and after more than two months 'in temp' he hopes to move there in January. Shelter is helping him source furniture and carpets. “It’s just fantastic,” says O’Rourke. Crucially it's a place where his sons – who he has not seen for months – can visit.
But as Shelter deputy director Alison Watson points out, many more will spend this Christmas without such hope. More than 50 per cent of temporary accommodation offered is provided in hostels or B&Bs. The equivalent of two children in every Scottish primary school - that's roughly 6000 boys and girls - will wake up on Christmas morning in temporary accommodation. A parent given a room in a homeless hostel is unable to have residential access to their children.
“Children are not just leaving their home," says Watson. "Often they have to leave behind toys and treasured possessions, they have to move school and their friends and in most cases temporary accommodation will not accept the family pet. We are concerned that it is has a very detrimental effect on their wellbeing and on their education. They are often moved around and there can be an increasing sense of isolation, children may be picked on at school if people know they are homeless. It’s not acceptable in the 21st century.”
The Scottish Government insists it is listening and has tasked its recently formed Homeless and Rough Sleeping Action group, of which Watson is a member, with putting forward recommendations on how to improve temporary housing.
"We accepted all of its recommendations on rough sleeping and we are looking forward to seeing what they come up with,” Housing Minister Kevin Stewart told the Sunday Herald. Some positive action has already been taken, he insists. The time children and pregnant mothers can spend in B&Bs was cut from 14 to seven days in September. But he accepts that the long-term answer is more housing. “We’re committed to building 50,000 new homes,” he added. Hope for the future, maybe. For on mornings like this over the Christmas period, a home is something that still alludes far too many.
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