Soup kitchen baby parents in shelter plea
Charity heartbroken by desperate family’s plight
A couple with a 10-day-old baby arrived at a soup kitchen asking for a place to spend the night, the head of a homeless centre has said.
They turned up at service run by Homeless Project Scotland at Hielenman’s Umbrella in Glasgow, which says it was the first time it has been approached by family with such a young child.
Chairman Colin McIness said: “It was a mum and a dad with a 10-day-old child.
“They came along to the soup kitchen and asked if they could get help to find accommodation.
“We’ve never dealt with anyone with a child that young before. The parents looked in OK health.
“Obviously they looked stressed and they looked a bit happy to see help. They obviously needed assistance from us to help them get into accommodation. It was quite an unusual situation.” The charity, which also runs outreach support in the city, refers people to Glasgow City Council’s case work team.
And the council was able to find the couple and baby a place to stay.
Colin added: “The council accommodated them in a B’n’B and then later offered them a temporary furnished flat.”
Homeless Project Scotland says it has helped accommodate more than 50 rough sleepers on the streets of Glasgow city centre in the last few weeks, including 24 – many of whom were recently released from prison – in the first week in October .
It comes just weeks after the charity said it was left “heartbroken” after two schoolchildren queued up with their mum at the soup kitchen.
According to Government figures, children made up 31 per cent of the 31,333 households assessed to be homeless or threatened with homelessness in Scotland.
Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy, Glasgow MSP and shadow cabinet secretary for social justice and social security, said: “I and Scottish Labour, again today, call on the Scottish government to double the Scottish Child Payment immediately, and again in a year. Children cannot wait.”
The Scottish Government said: “We invested £2.5billion to support low income households in 2020-21, with around £1billion focused on supporting children and we’ll use every lever at our disposal in our fight to tackle child poverty and homelessness.”