Glasgow City Council cuts topic briefing 2019

Shelter Scotland helps over half a million people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

Shelter Scotland has been delivering advice and support in Glasgow for over two decades and our Glasgow Hub helped over 3000 people in the city last year.

This briefing provides an overview of recently announced cuts to homelessness services by Glasgow City Council as well as a snapshot of the current situation and the concerns that Shelter Scotland has.

On 8th May 2019, Glasgow City Council’s (GCC) Integration Joint Board approved £2.6million of cuts to homelessness services in the city in its 2019/20 budget.1 These cuts will come into force on 1st October 2019.

Further service efficiencies of £500,000 have been identified for “redirection”.

These cuts affect 970 temporary properties managed by commissioned service providers across the city, and will equate to the loss of 99 beds along with mental health support services across the city.

Glasgow City Council states that these cuts have come into place in line with the city’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP),2 which includes the commitment to reduce the temporary accommodation in the city, improve the quality of temporary accommodation used, and expand the use of the Housing First approach.

Housing First is one part of the Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan, and the delivery of this has already begun, with 29 new tenancies being achieved by March 2019.

Given our long-term grave concerns about those who are denied homelessness services and temporary accommodation across the city(the practice known as “gatekeeping”), these cuts suggest a worrying direction of travel and Shelter Scotland has serious concerns about how existing challenging statutory duties will be met with diminishing resources.