Councillor Kate Campbell: Homes first, then lives will change

At the end of last year, we set up a cross party Homelessness Task Force, which I chair. Last week we published a number of the outcomes in a report to be considered by the Housing and Economy Committee. These changes, if agreed when the committee meets tomorrow, will make an enormous difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Edinburgh.

Ending the use of bed and breakfast accommodation completely is top of our list. The issue here though is the lack of affordable housing in the city. Although we have one of the most ambitious house building programmes in the UK it will take time for it to start to make a real difference.

In the meantime, it isn’t acceptable for us to be asking people to live in B&Bs without the facilities they need to meet their basic human needs.

So the task force recommendation is to change our contracts with providers. The new contracts will make sure that everyone has access to food storage, cooking facilities and access to a washing machine. To keep standards up, residents will also be able to rate the accommodation they are living in.

Some people, particularly those with multiple and complex needs, can find “the system” just too difficult to navigate. Since the end of last year, we’ve been working with the Scottish Government and Streetwork to develop a rapid access accommodation model.

Rapid access means high tolerance, harm reduction and no curfews. There aren’t forms to fill in before, you do everything once you are settled. The success rate for helping people to move off the streets has been really high and the task force members recognised how valuable this was. The recommendation is that the number of beds is increased as well, finding a more cost effective model for the future.