A NEW Alliance to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in Glasgow is to be set up.
The plan is to bring together organisations to provide services focusing on rough sleeping and providing accommodation and support.
The aim, which Glasgow has signed up to as one of the Institute of Global Homelessness Vanguard Cities, is to see a 75% reduction in rough sleeping in the city by the end of this year and to end it altogether by 2030.
The Glasgow Alliance is designed to change how services are delivered to address problems that have existed for many years.
A council report admits problems with the current way of working.
It states: “It is recognised that Glasgow City Council faces many challenges in meeting the needs of those at risk of, or experiencing homelessness.
“It is also acknowledged that the current models of support, referral and access arrangements contribute to ongoing levels of unmet need and longer duration of stay in homelessness services.”
The Alliance will be responsible for emergency accommodation services, supported accommodation, Care homes, street outreach services and Housing First.
The council as the statutory housing authority with legal responsibility for homelessness, will still be responsible for the temporary furnished flats, bed and breakfast budget, homelessness services for refugees and prisoners and out of hours homelessness.
Last month it was announced the Housing Regulator was to start an inquiry into homelessness services in the city and how the council provides people with emergency and temporary accommodation.
A regulator report had identified weaknesses in the council’s performance, notably a failure to house people quickly enough.
The council said it is now working closely with the Housing Regulator and the Scottish Government to improve its services relating to immediate housing need.
A council report by Pat Togher, head of Public Protection, said: “Both are interested in and supportive of the Council’s proposal to develop the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness as part of the solution.”
He said it would aim to reduce the length of time people remain in homelessness services and work with housing providers to get people into mainstream tenancies quicker.
Alliance approaches have been tried in cities in England and further afield including New Zealand.
The Glasgow plan is to have between six and eight partner organisations who will deliver services jointly.
A council spokesman said: “This is a genuine collaboration between partners to develop new approaches to tackle a complex social issue, while making best use of resources.
“It is ambitious and innovative and Glasgow is pioneering this way of working within the UK.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel