Progress being made on housing those in hotels
THE number of homeless people accommodated in hotels during the lockdown has reduced by around a quarter. At its peak there were around 600 homeless people in B&B and hotel accommodation in Glasgow.
The council said that has been reduced by around 150 as people are found accommodation working with social landlords.
It is expected the figure will reduce even further as more people are offered settled accommodation.
One of the hotels used, the Alexander Thomson in Argyle Street, closed last month for refurbishment.
All the people who were housed there were moved out to other spaces in the city.
The council said that around 5000 people have been offered accommodation during the pandemic since March last year.
The first five months of lockdown were considered a difficult period to get people into permanent accommodation due to restrictions and closures.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health & Social Care Partnership said: “We continue to make good progress in moving people on from hotel accommodation and whilst we experience a high volume of demand, our overall figure for those residing in hotel/B&B accommodation has reduced by almost 150 in recent months from a peak figure of over 600.
“We continue to work closely with the city’s Registered Social Landlords to secure further accommodation and by the end of December had exceeded normal rates of letting.”
More people are expected to be moved on to more suitable places to live.
The spokeswoman added: “We have confidence that our hotel population will continue to reduce over the coming months.
“Reducing the number of people in hotels will very much depend on further Covid restrictions, however at this point we are confident that the current restrictions will not impede our progress.
“Our staff have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and we can’t thank them, our third-sector partners and the housing associations enough for their ongoing support during this very challenging time for all.
“It has been a huge team effort to accommodate and support people.”
Campaigners had raised concerns about vulnerable people in the Alexander Thomson Hotel.
There have been nine deaths reported in the last year of people living in the hotel.
The city council said people were moved out of the hotel in December as part of the ongoing programme to rehouse them.
The latest reported death was of a man found in the hotel on December 8.
A 38-year-old woman died at the hotel on April 25, and the following month a 21-year-old man died on May 1.
In June, two men, both aged 43, died on June 3 and June 21.
A 25-year-old male and a 44-year-old woman died on July 28. A 49-year-old female died on August 27 and a 48-year-old woman died the following day.
Homelessness campaigner Sean Clerkin said: “This is good news in that homeless people will have been dispersed to safer and better accommodation.
“We demand that these homeless people get proper access to drug and alcohol addiction services and receive mental health care.
“They should also get the opportunity to get access to permanent housing as soon as possible.”