Glasgow's multi-agency response to tackling homelessness is being celebrated with the news that only three people are currently sleeping rough on the city streets.
Charity Simon Community Scotland confirmed the figure this week, before adding that all three are long term rough sleepers who are engaging with their Street Outreach team on a daily basis.
The latest figure follows the revelation back in August last year that 'less than five' were sleeping on the streets, which the charity hailed at the time as being "arguably the lowest of any major city in Europe".
Ashley Young, Head of Services Service at Simon Community Scotland, believes that the figure is the fruit of better work practices and strengthened relationships between different agencies as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
She told Glasgow Live: "During the pandemic we were forced to just make things happen, so some of the barriers that existed before then, we had to find ways to overcome them and there's been loads and loads of great work done during that period, and those work practices still remain.
"So those relationships that we've always worked closely with, the key partners within the agency, I think during covid those relationships and out relationship with the [Glasgow City] Health and Social Care Partnership were strengthened.
"There were some decisions taken during that time - one of the key ones being having case workers based in our access hub - that has made a huge, huge difference in keeping the rough sleeping figures low but also preventing people from rough sleeping. So when people are in accommodation and maybe they are struggling and its not the right accommodation and they need additional support, they can access those supports really, really quickly because we've got those teams in that building Monday to Friday.
"That's been a real key difference and that's one of the main things as well".
Ashley says that while the charity are "doing everything" they can to help secure accommodation for the three individuals, they "need to respect" that at present all three have made the decision not to take them up on the offer.
She said: "I completely understand why people might say 'that's three too many'. Absolutely there's three too many, but we can't force people. These individuals have been offered every accommodation imaginable, the've been offered all the options and they don't want to take that up and we need to respect that. But we need to ensure - and we have a responsibility and duty of care to make sure - that they are well and that we are checking on them.
"One of the gents who walked into the access hub is an older man and we got him his covid vaccines to make sure we are taking care of his health. We are doing absolutely everything that we can around that and the hope is that at some point something might change for them and they might be more inclined to consider coming inside, but at the moment they've made that decision. But we have those relationships with these guys.
"So it's not 'quick-fixes' it's very much the long game with us, it's building relationships, it's getting to know the people, getting to know their stories, their backgrounds. That's the key and that's what making the difference. But also another approach, it's not just the house, it's not just putting somebody into accommodation, it's the support that follows. That's also a key driver, then them being in that accommodation. So we work really closely with all the Outreach teams as well to make sure people are getting the appropriate support.
"And also things like, through our partnership with the DWP, who are making sure everyone has got the benefits they are entitled to. They've changed their whole approach as well in how they work and from this week coming we will have a DWP staff member based within our access hub as well. We had this in the past and it worked really well and then the pandemic happened and it had to be put on hold. But they are coming out to people.
"Again it's just breaking down the barriers, making things easy, being on site so we know where people are and they don't need to go through the processes of going to Job Centres or being on the phone for lengthy periods. So that's going to be a key thing for us going forward, that we are going to have these people on site. We know the team work really closely with them, so that's going to be absolutely brilliant."
Ashley also highlighted the mutual "commitment" to keeping the homelessness figures "as low as possible" amongst the charity, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, the Scottish Government and all other partners.
She said: "We see lots of stuff in the media about how bad things are but actually there's so much good going out there. It's really important that the public know that actually the systems and the processes in Glasgow are working really well for people just now.
"We are listening, everybody's listening. We are learning and we are really fortunate that we can make changes really quickly. Service users absolutely play a huge part in this because they tell us if things are working or if things are not working for them and if we can go direct to people like the Health and Social Care Partnership and the Scottish Government and feed this back. We have really close contact with the Health and Social Care Partnership and the Scottish Government, there's daily and sometimes weekly contact with key people, so we are feeding back things all the time, things like what isn't working or if we need something done here and people are listening.
"There's such a commitment to keeping those figures as low as possible. Ultimately we want to get to zero but at this point, the figures could change. Today we could be back at six because things could happen in people's lives but we'll go out and engage with those people to make sure that we can get them back into their accommodation or get them re-accommodated or whatever support they need, and that's been going on for a long time. That isn't new but I think the numbers being so low and people being accommodated so quickly, that's probably one of the newer things that have come from the pandemic and having the case workers on site at the hub just makes such a huge difference and that's such a key part of that."
And despite the good news, Ashley says that there is "still work to be done".
She continued: "There's still work to be done. Nobody is saying everything is perfect because it absolutely isn't, but it's come such a long, long way. We are doing really, really well and people are listening. What we've learned form the pandemic has really paved the way for the work that's happening just now and made things easy and that real partnership and multi-agency approach is fantastic. No one agency can do all this or service, we rely on each others resources and expertise to get the correct support for people."
