Fiona is a volunteer with Glasgow Homelessness Involvement & Feedback Team
OVER the past few weeks I’ve been going along to residential homelessness services that are closing to make way for change, to talk to staff and residents. As a volunteer I’m trained to assist and speak up for people who are homeless.
It helps that I myself have first-hand experience of being homeless and have lived in supported accommodation too.
My message is that it’s time to embrace change. Too many Scots are still institutionalised – we’ve closed the Victorian asylums and orphanages but many homeless hostels are still here, in our modern cities. Sometimes people working in this sector can feel that way too.
But things are changing. The new Housing First initiative for people with the hardest circumstances is a welcome thing here in Scotland supported by charities, Scottish Government, councils and the 120 people already in their own homes as a result.
It brings potentially ground-breaking positive change to this bad crisis, allowing people to move straight into their own home with professional support, designed for them and for as long as they feel they need help.
For people in the places closing, this should be an exciting, optimistic time but what I’ve seen has not always been encouraging. Not because we’re unable to help – we can and do – but the lack of recognition out there about the big shift in the way Scotland tries to stop homelessness is concerning.
The relief on the faces of the people using these facilities is clear and heart-warming when we tell them what alternatives are available nowadays. They see hope and the chance for a life that is their own, with all the support they require, made to their own needs to help them get back on their feet. In other words, they can see their chance to take back control.
People experiencing homelessness are human beings, not cattle to be shunted around and kept out of the way in institutions. I have learned that people experiencing homelessness are diverse and unique individuals who, given the chance, have an enormous amount to contribute.
They should be recognised as such and embraced and nurtured to reach their full potential.
If you have an interest in ending homelessness, or you work with people experiencing homelessness, wherever you are in Scotland, the Homeless Network would like to hear from you: info@ghn.org.uk or 0141 420 7272 during office hours. The Homeless Network does not provide advice, accommodation or services directly to the public.
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