DEADLY SERIOUS
Plea for support to avoid more deaths in city’s ‘hellhole’ hotels
TWO mums whose sons died in “hellhole” hotels have demanded more support to stop similar deaths.
Linda McVean and Maureen Thomson were enraged at the conditions their sons endured after becoming homeless. Both died after overdoses at hotels where drug dealing is claimed to be rife.
The mums joined protesters at Glasgow’s George Square while councillors debated a growing housing crisis in the nearby City Chambers.
Linda, whose son Frankie, 30, died in May at the Queens Park Hotel, told the Record: “Frankie did not even take drugs when he was admitted to that hotel but he got sucked into the same dangers as so many others have.
“What I want is an assurance that any hotel that is taken over for the homeless is suitably equipped to treat their needs, whether it’s addiction or mental health-related. We can’t just keep sticking people in these hellholes and forget about them.”
The event, organised by the Scottish Tenants Association and Homeless Project Scotland, featured body bags to symbolise 26 deaths at homeless hotels in Glasgow in recent 12 months.
Linda became close to Maureen Thomson after her son Gary, 45, also died of a suspected drug overdose at the Tartan Lodge hostel in the city’s east end in June. Maureen said: “Gary said it was like going into a dungeon, a hellhole.”
The Glasgow protest came as the Scottish Government said it would make a “primary focus” in the coming year of reducing the number of homeless people in temporary accommodation.
Gary said it was like going into a dungeon, a hellhole
MAUREEN THOMSON VICTIM’S MOTHER