Glasgow City Council failed in its legal duties to homeless people by failing to ensure there was enough suitable temporary accommodation for them before the coronavirus pandemic.
The Scottish Housing Regulator inquiry into the council’s services for people concluded that the council did not provide temporary accommodation to significant numbers of people when they needed it.
During 2019/20, the council told the regulator that it failed to offer temporary accommodation on 3,786 instances when households required it - an increase of 445 on the previous year.
The regulator said this meant the council "failed" to comply with its "statutory duty" to offer temporary accommodation in nearly 1 in 3 occasions when people required it.
The regulator said single people were "disproportionately affected" and accounted for 66% of homeless applications and for 83% of those not offered temporary accommodation.
The inquiry found that in some cases the people not accommodated were vulnerable and had approached the council for accommodation on multiple occasions.
Shelter Scotland said there was "alarming" evidence of families with children being turned away without the council knowing where they would sleep that night, and of single people being sent to sleep on the streets with the council’s knowledge.
Glasgow City Council denied that families were turned away.
But the regulator said in a review of a sample of of 2178 household presentations not offered accommodation they found that the council did not offer homes to 202 households with children.
"Most told the council they would stay with family or friends or return to their previous accommodation, although one in four were unable to specify where they intended tp sleep that night," the regulator said.
The council also reported breaching the Unsuitable Accommodation Order in 2019/20, with 80 of its placements in temporary accommodation.
The charity says that while the report reflects some positive developments – 17 new staff have been hired in recent months and an increase in the number of lets from housing association has made a real difference during the pandemic – "it’s clear that the that the council was seriously failing before coronavirus hit.
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The inquiry was announced last year, after Shelter Scotland launched legal action against Glasgow City Council over its practice of “gatekeeping” – where people who present as homeless are refused their legal rights.
Commenting on the report, Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson said: “This report confirms the systemic failure of Glasgow City Council’s homelessness services, which has led to thousands of people being denied their legal rights.
“We took legal action last year because we’d had enough of the Council routinely breaking the law and forcing people onto the streets. This inquiry wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the thousands of people who supported our action, in Glasgow and beyond.
“We’ll now take the time to carefully reflect on the report and assess what needs to happen next. We welcome the Regulator’s findings and recommendations and look forward to meeting to discuss the issues further. The test will be how Glasgow City Council responds positively to this unprecedented intervention.
“Our shared goal must be to ensure that everyone who presents to the Council as homeless is provided with the safe and suitable accommodation they’re legally entitled to.”
The regulator found that during 2019/20, people spent an average of 228 days in temporary accommodation provided by the council compared to the Scottish average of 184 days.
Its inquiry report said that the long periods of time people spend in temporary accommodation are, at least in part, a consequence of the time it takes the council to secure people settled accommodation.
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"This delay contributes to the shortfall in temporary accommodation and so to the council’s failure to provide accommodation when people need it," it said.
The regulator said: “Prior to the pandemic there was a disconnect between the council’s stated strategy and policy on homelessness and the practice in its service delivery about meeting its legal duties in relation to temporary accommodation. Notwithstanding its work to increase the pool of temporary furnished accommodation in previous years, the council did not have enough suitable temporary accommodation to meet the need from people who approached it with nowhere to stay.”
The report also recognised the challenges facing the council in delivering an effective service for people who are experiencing homelessness, in particular, the “significant” scale of homelessness presentations in the city.
It added: “The council told us that it faces challenges in providing temporary accommodation and that it is working to address this through its Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP). However, we found an acceptance in the council’s management of presentations by people with nowhere to stay that it could not always comply with its duty to provide temporary accommodation.
“We saw evidence of the council’s staff working hard to accommodate people and meet their needs within this, although they were not always able to do so given the inadequate supply of suitable temporary accommodation.”
The regulator said that improvements are “important building blocks” to help the council tackle the weaknesses in its service, but the pace of change since March 2018 has been “slow”.
In 2019/20, the council took 6,054 applications for assistance from people who were homeless, an average of 504 each month. This was 370 (7%) more than the previous year. Glasgow received 16.4% of all homelessness applications taken by councils in Scotland.
Michael Cameron, the regulator’s chief executive, said: “The council should address the weaknesses we identified in its approach to temporary accommodation to help it build on and sustain compliance with its statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation and prepare for the extension of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order. It should ensure that it has an adequate level of suitable temporary accommodation which meets the diverse needs of people experiencing homelessness.
“We expect the council to ensure that its recovery plans address the weaknesses in its approach to temporary accommodation.”
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “We welcome this report from the regulator and their recognition that improvements have been made to our homelessness service in spite of the challenges we face.
“Glasgow receives 16.4% of all homelessness applications in Scotland and during April and August 2020, the council received an average of 481 homeless applications per month. Despite Covid 19 lockdown restrictions, the team made almost 6000 offers of temporary accommodation and completed 1300 resettlement plans during that period - managing to maintain 95% of usual business.
“The service has improved in several areas, including preventing the cycle of repeat homelessness, however, our biggest challenge remains our access to temporary accommodation. This cannot be solved overnight. The council does not have its own housing stock, so we will continue to work with the city’s 68 Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and City Building to bring quality temporary accommodation back into use as quickly as possible.
“We remain committed to working in partnership with the third sector and RSLs on a range of improvements we are making through our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan, our new Alliancing model and Housing First. We are pleased that this is an area the Regulator has also highlighted improvements in.”
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