NICOLA Sturgeon will consider opening public buildings this winter to help rough sleepers receive support amid concern over many people being forced onto the streets this Christmas.
The First Minister was pressed by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar over the number of rough sleepers in Scotland and thousands of families staying in temporary accommodation for an average of a year.
The latest Scottish Government homelessness statistics show that almost 2,500 people wo made a homelessness application had slept rough in the previous three months, while nearly 1,500 had slept rough the night before making the application.
Responding at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said her Government will “certainly do everything in our power” to try and alleviate the problem, but warned that “many people are still at risk of homelessness and at risk of rough sleeping”.
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She added: "We are investing significantly in making sure there are support services there for people who do face the risk of homelessness or rough sleeping.
“We will continue to do what we can and work with others to make sure that nobody is on the streets over this winter period.”
But Mr Sarwar warned “that still means that people will sleep rough this winter”.
He added: “It doesn’t need to be that way – we can eradicate rough sleeping now. That means also taking real action to end homelessness too.
“A home is more than four walls and a roof above your head – it is a basic human right.
“Too many will be spending this Christmas in temporary accommodation.”
The First Minister acknowledged that the number of people in temporary accommodation has increased during the pandemic as efforts focused on moving rough sleepers from the street.
She added: “It can take some time for local authorities to find the right accommodation, particularly for families.
“This is an area of real priority for the Government.”
But the Labour leader stressed that “this is a problem that has been getting worse year on year since 2013, long before the pandemic”.
He said: “We need a coherent plan to end homelessness - but we must act to eradicate rough sleeping now.
“To eradicate rough sleeping this Christmas, will the First Minister commit to outreach support during the night to help identify people sleeping rough on our streets and find them accommodation and will she open up public buildings to allow volunteers to feed the most vulnerable in a safe and warm setting where support services are also present?”
Ms Sturgeon told her opponent that “Scotland has led the way in the UK on delivery of affordable housing”, highlighting that more than 105,00 homes have been delivered since 2007 – with more than 70,000 of those for social rent.
She said: “We have increased funding to enable those on the front line to much more rapidly help people and have access to the funding to do that.
“I’m certainly happy to ask the Housing Minister to look at whether there is more we can and need to do ahead of this festive period and into the winter.”
Pointing to Mr Sarwar’s request for public buildings to be repurposed, Ms Sturgeon said: “I’m certainly happy to explore that.”
She added: “Many public buildings, of course, are not in the ownership of the Scottish Government – they will be in the ownership of local authorities. There are often issues that local authorities have to deal with around that and we’ve seen some of that in Glasgow in recent times.
“These are all issues we take really seriously. We are doing a significant, huge amount of work across all of these strands.
“I do agree that for as long as one person is sleeping rough on our streets, there is more for all of us to do – which is why I will never close my mind to suggestions and proposals that come.”
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