Over the last 10 years the role of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in Scottish social housing has increased dramatically. This growth has brought new responsibilities and challenges, particularly in housing statutorily homeless households via the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Homelessness (Scotland) Act 2003. When the subject of RSLs and homelessness is raised, it is usually assumed that this is about section 5 of the 2001 Act, which gave housing associations a duty to accept homelessness referrals from local authorities in particular circumstances. However, the role and potential role of RSLs is much wider than that quite formal role.

The Homelessness Act 2003 established the target for all unintentionally homeless people to have the right to a permanent home by 2012. With RSLs making up 45 per cent of the social rented sector in Scotland, they have an important role to play in working towards that 2012 target more generally. This report looks at 4 main areas of the sector’s work with homeless people: housing homeless households; preventing homelessness and sustaining tenancies; providing supported accommodation; and RSLs’ engagement in strategy development. The report looks specifically at the experience of a small number of RSLs, which we contacted directly, as well as other more general evidence about the sector. This report gives a snapshot of work by RSLs, but given the small sample of organisations this is not necessarily typical of the sector as a whole.