Scotland's public services should do more to prevent people from being forced into homelessness, a leading charity has said. About 8% of people in Scotland, or one in 12, have experienced homelessness, according to the latest figures from Crisis.
The charity has urged parts of the public sector outside of housing to take on a greater responsibility for helping people access support to stay in their homes. The cost-of-living emergency could cause a huge rise in people being forced from their homes over the coming months.
The charity has launched a new publication, 75 Ways to Prevent Homelessness, which brings together examples of projects and organisations working to prevent homelessness in Scotland. While the projects featured all help, many of them do not work directly in housing.
Crisis said the guide shows how organisations working through the health sector, schools and the justice system help to support people at risk of homelessness. It comes after the Scottish Government announced new proposals to strengthen the law around homelessness prevention in Scotland.
These were based on recommendations of the Prevention Review Group, which was convened by Crisis and made up of experts from local government, academia and homelessness services, to consider what actions could be taken to prevent people from losing their home in the first place. The proposed changes would allow people to get support earlier, up to six months before they are at risk of homelessness.
They aim to introduce new legal duties for public bodies, which would require people working for public services in areas such as health and the justice system to ask about someone's housing situation, then offer help if required. The plans would ensure no one leaves an institution, such as prison or hospital, without somewhere to sleep that night.
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: "Without urgent action, there is a huge risk we will see a huge spike in homelessness in Scotland over the coming months. We strongly support new proposals to help prevent homelessness, but these changes will take time.
"That's why we have released a new guide to homelessness prevention - to shine a light on the projects and organisations doing amazing work to help people stay in their homes, and to show how the new prevention measures can work in practice. There are incredible examples of homelessness prevention in Scotland, but we need to build on these and ensure that everyone can access the support they need to help them avoid the trauma and indignity of homelessness.
"By strengthening homelessness prevention measures, and by learning from the examples in the guide, Scotland can become a world leader in tackling homelessness." Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison welcomed the "timely publication" of the guide from Crisis. She added: "We are keen to learn from, and build upon, this existing practice to help inform our introduction of new prevention of homelessness duties.
"The Scottish Government are committed to introducing these new legal duties so that individuals and families do not have to face the trauma and disruption to lives brought by homelessness. This will include the introduction of responsibilities on public bodies to 'ask and act' to prevent homelessness."
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