Big progress on rough sleeping but problem not solved, MSPS told

ROUGH sleeping in Scotland has been reduced to a “handful” of individuals but there will be a huge challenge to find accommodation for them once lockdown measures end, MSPS have been told.

Holyrood’s Local Government Committee heard evidence from three charities about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on homelessness.

Margaret-ann Brunjes, director of the Homelessness Network Scotland, said remarkable progress had been made on rough sleeping.

She said: “All different parts came together to resolve the situation almost overnight, to the point where there’s now less than a handful of people sleeping rough in each of the cities. So that in itself has forced a rethink of what’s possible. But it also means that where we are right now is on a bit of a knife-edge, because what we’ve not done is solve the problem.”

At the start of the lockdown, hotels were used to house hundreds of rough sleepers.

Some of these measures are due to end in July, leading to concerns some people will return to the streets later in the year.

The Bethany Christian Trust said the charity’s Edinburgh care shelter usually had 26 people a week but that had increased to around 40.

Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman asked: “How are we going to deal with this when the crisis is technically over?”

Mike Wright, service manager at the Cyrenians charity, replied: “I think we have some quite difficult choices to make. .. I don’t think there is much of an appetite to see any human return to a life on the streets.”