Homelessness

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 29 November 2018.

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Photo of Ruth Maguire Ruth Maguire Scottish National Party

Everyone needs a safe, warm place that they can call home. It is more than just a physical place to live; I am sure that, through their casework, MSPs will know full well the toll that the lack of such a place can take on folk. The security and roots that a home provides are absolutely essential to physical and emotional health and wellbeing. Indeed, under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has a fundamental human right to housing.

Homeless people in Scotland already have some of the strongest rights in the world. Here, everybody who is found to be homeless is legally entitled to housing, and most people are provided with settled permanent accommodation. Huge progress in tackling homelessness has been made, but there is much more to do. I welcome the ending homelessness together action plan and the fact that the Scottish Government accepts all 70 recommendations. I thank the homelessness and rough sleeping action group for all its hard work.

The plan has people and prevention at its centre and contains a shift towards rapid rehousing, which will see homeless people housed in long-term and settled accommodation solutions that meet their needs as soon as possible. The “together” part of the plan is important; ending homelessness will need the Scottish Government, COSLA, local authorities and third and public sector bodies to work together. Members will have received briefings from a number of organisations that will ultimately be part of the work to realise the aim of the plan, which is that

“everyone has a home that meets their needs and homelessness is ended.”

It is a measure of the quality of the work that has been done that the majority of stakeholders have warmly welcomed the proposed actions.

Scottish Women’s Aid strongly welcomes the Scottish Government’s renewed focus on prevention. However, it has highlighted its disappointment at what it sees as a missed opportunity to consider

“the distinct gendered differences and underlying causes of women’s homelessness.”

I agree with Scottish Women’s Aid when it says that

“while people experiencing homelessness will share common experiences ... an understanding of women’s, and their children’s, distinct experiences and the underlying causes of their risk of homelessness is essential.”

As Scottish Women’s Aid also states, women’s economically disadvantaged position in the labour market—they are often in part-time, low-paid and sometimes precarious work while managing childcare and other caring responsibilities—means that they are

“disproportionately dependent on the social housing sector.”

During these 16 days of action, when many members will wear white ribbons to show their support for the eradication of violence against women, it would seem ridiculous not to highlight that domestic abuse is a major cause of women’s homelessness in Scotland. Scottish Government homelessness statistics for 2017-18 tell us that

“Dispute within household: violent or abusive” was given as the main reason for homelessness by 4,395 applicants, 78 per cent of whom were women and more than half of whom had children on their application. In fact, more women make a homelessness application under that category than make an application for any other reason.

The recent Equality and Human Rights Commission report on the state of equality and human rights in Scotland highlights:

“Evidence presented so far does not capture ‘hidden’ homelessness.”

As we know, the figures on women’s homelessness will not show the full extent of the issue, as many women who are fleeing domestic abuse often stay in various insecure housing situations, or with family or friends, before making a homelessness application.

Domestic abuse is both a cause and a consequence of women’s inequality. The Scottish Government’s equally safe strategy recognises that, and it highlights homelessness as a factor that can keep women and girls trapped in an abusive home.

Earlier this week, the cabinet secretary responded positively to my question about the importance of embedding equality and human rights impact assessments in work to ensure that, unlike the UK Government’s policies, which the United Nations rapporteur assessed as seeming to have been compiled by a roomful of misogynists who were tasked with making a system that worked better for men than for women, we, in Scotland, do better in addressing the structural inequalities that are faced by women and girls.

I welcome the aims and the proposed actions in the plan, but I ask the Government to reflect on whether embedding an equalities and human rights approach would have resulted in a plan that better recognised the existing inequalities that are experienced by women and girls, ensuring that they were not repeated and reinforced.

I ask the minister, in winding up the debate, to address the points that were raised by Scottish Women’s Aid and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations on the need for greater understanding of the gendered nature of homelessness.