Housing First plan for city homeless ready to take off
A PLAN which will take more than 50 homeless people in Glasgow out of hostel accommodation and into a home has been agreed between the council, housing association and a charity.
The deal between Glasgow City Council, Social Bite and Wheatley Group will see 54 tenancies in Glasgow made available for the Housing First model.
The rapid rehousing model takes people from the most vulnerable group and put them into a tenancy with relevant support. Glasgow City Council will decommission a hostel, the Clyde Place assessment centre which houses 54 people under emergency accommodation, and abandon plans to build any new hostels.
Instead they will be transferred to Rodney Street in the north of the city and then gradually they will be moved into the Housing First Tenancies.
The plan is expected to be approved by the city Integration Joint Board next week. If so, it is hoped that clients will be assessed by the end of this month and tenancies identi- fied by the middle of June.
In August, the expectation is that five or six a week will be moved into tenancies and by the end of September the Clyde Place hostel closed.
Wheatley Group has agreed with social bite to provide 200 flats in Glasgow and across central Scotland for Housing First with the charity meeting costs to get tenancies ready.
Councillor Mhairi Hunter, Chair of the Integrated Joint Board, said: “Housing First has now been widely accepted as the way forward for supporting the most vulnerable people affected by homelessness.
“Glasgow has already been at the forefront of work on Housing First in Scotland. But working with Social Bite has given us the opportunity to significantly step up our use of Housing First in Glasgow.
“Adopting this plan will help us to work more effectively with those people who are often caught in the revolving door between emergency accommodation and rough sleeping.”
She said evidence shows that with the right support helps people move on from homelessness
Ms Hunter added: “Rapidly rehousing those with multiple and complex needs is a simple but radical approach to homelessness.”
It is hoped that more flats will follow to help more people with Social bit in talks with other Registered Social Landlords in Glasgow about Housing First.