Royal Scotland visit highlights working with homeless
BRITAIN’S Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle visited a café in Scotland on Tuesday dedicated to helping the homeless, highlighting the growing number of businesses striving to tackle social problems as lawmakers backed a new housing policy.
The couple, whose wedding is scheduled for May, were in Edinburgh visiting Social Bite, a social enterprise that runs five cafés and distributes food to the homeless.
Although government numbers last year showed the number of households classified as homeless (which can refer to an individual, a couple or a family) had dropped 32 per cent in a decade to 28,000, campaigners said more must be done.
“It is simply wrong that in the last six months in Scotland on average a household lost their home every 18 minutes,” said Graeme Brown, director of homeless charity Shelter in Scotland.
The royal visit came a day after the crossparty Local Government and Communities Committee recommended the government implement a policy targeting homelessness.
The policy, known as Housing First, has been piloted in parts of Scotland. It puts homeless people into secure accommodation before addressing health or employment issues.
Homeless people currently progress through temporary accommodation in hostels or night shelters.
In Finland a similar policy cut homelessness by 40 per cent between 2008 and 2012. The 170 million euros cost funded affordable rented housing and support services.
Housing Secretary Kevin Stewart welcomed the committee’s report, and said that the government had committed £50 million to fund homelessness prevention schemes over five years.
Social Bite, some of whose staff were once homeless, offers free food to the homeless, and uses profits to fund secure tenancies in the Housing First model and to build houses.
Social Bite used the royal visit to launch its own Housing First campaign. It will use some of the £4 million, raised by 9,000 people who slept out in an Edinburgh park in December, to help 500 people into housing over 18 months.
Entrepreneurs using businesses to help tackle social problems are emerging across the globe, improving communities, breaking the cycle of re-offending, solving education issues and reducing isolation among the elderly.