Urgent investment into social housing in Glasgow has been demanded following five suspected overdoses in two Glasgow hotels within 19 days.
Two of the victims were at the Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel while three others died at the Queens Park Hotel in the south side, which has been described as a “drug den”.
The latest victim was Charlene Biggley, 41, a mother who was also found dead at the Rennie Mackintosh on Tuesday this week.
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The Daily Record reports that two of the victims at the Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel were free from drugs when they were admitted to the notorious establishment.
A devastated family member told how Charlene had moved from her Kilmarnock home to get away from drugs - but ended up dying of an overdose.
They said: “Charlene has had a struggle with addiction and moved to Glasgow around five years ago to get away from drugs. She had a problem with alcohol but she would always say that she would not die a drug addict and that was important to her.
“When she moved into the Rennie Mackintosh several months age we knew there was a risk of her going back to drugs because the place is awash with drug dealing and drug taking.
“It’s the last place on the world you would want a family member to end up if they were trying to sort their lives out but she was told there was nowhere else for her to go.
“She should have been given help for her addiction, not stuck in a horrible drug den.”
A 52-year-old man who also died at the hotel on May 14 begged a Glasgow City Council homelessness team worker to find an alternative to the Rennie Mackintosh due to its connection with overdose deaths.
A source said: “The worker is a thoroughly decent and conscientious person and had to tell him there was nowhere else. They were distraught to find out that the man had died. He had said it was inevitable he’d succumb to drugs after a year of abstinence if it was riddled with drug dealing.”
They added: “In Scotland people have a legal right to housing but they are being denied it. They are being decanted into places which are death traps, with rooms being made available with one death and another vulnerable person being moved in.”
Other recent victims were a 30-year-old man who died on May 14 at the Queens Park Hotel, while a 49-year-old woman and 60-year-old man were also confirmed dead on the same day, Thursday, May 4.
Reports have been sent to the fiscal for all cases.
Alison Watson, Director of Shelter Scotland, said the Scottish Government has failed to meet its pledge to build more social housing for vulnerable people.
She said: “Once again in Scotland people have lost their lives while being denied their right to housing.
“That anyone should die without somewhere to call home is outrageous, that they should spend their last days stuck and forgotten in miserable temporary accommodation is shameful.
“The Scottish Government should have long ago said ‘no more’ and committed itself to delivering the social homes we need to finally eradicate homelessness.
“Instead, the budget has been slashed and social housing delivery is slowing down at a time when it urgently need to accelerate."
She added: "These tragedies were not inevitable, they must not be accepted and simply cannot be allowed to happen again.
“It’s obviously wrong for people to be thrown into temporary accommodation which can’t hope to provide them with the support they need, but it keeps happening.
“The chronic shortage of social housing across Scotland is why we have such an over-reliance on shoddy temporary accommodation. Until that shortage is addressed people will continue to suffer.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “Glasgow HSCP Homelessness Services has provided more than 36,000 offers of emergency accommodation in the last three years resulting in historically low numbers of rough sleeping remaining at single figures. Hotel/BnB provision accounts for approximately 15 per cent of all emergency accommodation, with the vast majority residing in temporary furnished or supported accommodation.
“Given the lifestyle and complexity of need within the homelessness population there remains a risk of early mortality.”
In April it was revealed by the Museum of Homelessness that at least 157 homeless Scots died last year, taking the total in just three years to 518.
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