City Mission to house homeless in hotel

A HOMELESS charity hopes to overhaul accommodation for rough- sleepers by tapping a city centre hotel to house those in need over winter.

Glasgow City Mission’s Overnight Welcome Centre will be based in a city centre hotel.

The charity has secured the site but is keeping its location confidential.

It follows similar moves by other homeless charities which used more comfortable hotels over “dormitory- style” shelters to house rough sleepers at the height of the pandemic.

The 25 residents – the upper limit the charity can house in the hotel at any given time – will be entitled to a packed lunch and an evening meal, as well as benefitting from support from staff.

The charity plans to open the Overnight Welcome Centre on December 1 and the service will run until March 31.

It hopes that having access to staff will allow residents at the centre to develop better relationships with their support workers who can then move them into more permanent accommodation.

Working with partners such as Glasgow City Council’s health and social care partnership and the Scottish Government, the charity also aims to reduce the time spent by people in its care, with the goal of moving rough sleepers into alternative arrangements, only staying at the hotel for “a very short period of time”.

The rooms provided will be single occupancy, rather than mattresses on the floor as in traditional homeless shelters.

Despite this, a spokesman for Glasgow City Mission said the charity hopes the hotel will “only be needed as a last resort”.

He added: “As ever, it is our hope that demand will be reduced through people being safely accommodated before they need to stay at the centre.”

An extra staff position was created to support hotel residents in moving into settled accommodation as part of the centre’s service.

The new housing settlement officer will help move residents into more permanent arrangements quickly.

The role was created by securing Comic Relief funding through Homeless Link and is budgeted for 12 months.

Glasgow City Mission is a Christian organisation founded in 1826 to provide “compassionate care for the city’s marginalised”, according to its website.

It provides support for homeless people and addicts and help on benefits.