The cost of providing temporary accommodation in the last four months in Glasgow has passed the £16 million mark.
Sean Clerkin(Image: Garry F McHarg Daily Record)
There were demands yesterday for the Red Cross to be called in to solve Glasgow’s spiralling homeless refugee crisis.
The Daily Record can reveal that the city’s council spent £16.5 million between April and July housing homeless people – including thousands of refugees – in hotels and guest houses. Cash strapped Glasgow paid the sums to owners across the city in the sixteen weeks from April to July.
In the first nine weeks the hotel and B&B cost was £7.2 million, but by July 20 it had risen by a further nine million to £16,598,706. At that rate of spending the final bill for the current financial year could be as high as £55 million – compared to the £45.2 million spent last year – a rise of around £10million. The shock figures were obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) by the Scottish Tenants Organisation (STO.
Campaigns co-ordinator Sean Clerkin says the International Red Cross should be called in if the Scottish and UK governments can’t come up with enough money to bail out Glasgow.
He added:”What we have is a man made disaster that has turned into a Tsunami. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“We need the International Red Cross to intervene in Glasgow as they do across the world in other homeless and humanitarian crisis.
“If that is not possible then the Scottish and British Governments have got to give the money to Glasgow to provide the homeless accommodation that is so desperately needed.
“The only current beneficiaries are the owners of the 40 hotels in the city and they stand to rake in nearly £55 million this financial year. That is unacceptable.
“The money should instead be spent on building good quality safe and secured homeless accommodation controlled by the local authority.
“Nearly all refugees that come to Scotland end up in Glasgow and that is why Glasgow needs to be treated as a special case with extra funding being given.
“We need to treat the most vulnerable people whether they be women, children or refugees with respect and dignity giving them the help they badly need.”
Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher(Image: Getty Images)
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The number of homeless people in the city – including refugees who have been given leave to remain in the UK – stands at 8530. Of that total 2242 are currently living in hotels and B&B and the rest in furnished flats and homeless shelters.
The FOI figures show that 5,231 refugees with leave to remain were living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow of that total 1,615 were living in hotels and B&B.
Tenants groups like the STO are also concerns over the standard of the accommodation and the safety of women and children in hotels and B&B establishments
More than 360 women and 85 families were living there as of July 20 and the STO claim they women are prey for sexual abuse and exploitation by male residents.
In 1,812 cases between January and July this year accommodation in hotels and bed & breakfast were deemed to be unsuitable and in breach of council regulations.
Twelve homeless people died in temporary accommodation between January and July including three in hotels and B&B. While 954 homeless people were refused accommodation by Glasgow City Council between April and July
Scottish Conservative shadow housing secretary Meghan Gallacher MSP said: “Glasgow City Council can’t keep wasting millions of taxpayers’ cash on sticking plaster fixes.
“Savage cuts to the housing budget and their reckless rent controls have caused a collapse in housebuilding – trapping families in temporary accommodation.
“The need to act could not be greater, but SNP ministers aren’t just ignoring this crisis, they’re making it next to impossible for councils to tackle the housing emergency.”
Earlier this week Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken called on the Home Office to give them more cash to provide accommodation for homeless refugees.
She says the city plays a disproportionate role in supporting refugees within the UK. The council are facing a £110million overspend in the next two years due to the rising costs.
Ms Aitken added:”The Home Office has to step in and support councils on the frontline of this emergency to provide decent accommodation for everyone who needs it and by funding housebuilding and home acquisition programmes in areas like Glasgow that are facing the greatest pressure.”
Susan Aitken SNP leader of Glasgow City Council(Image: Garry F McHarg Daily Record)
Glasgow City Council Labour Leader Councillor Rashid Hussein said :”This situation is one that needs to be handled sensitively and responsibly by all parties.
“Our focus needs to remain on the fact that there are people in our city in very difficult situations, living real lives, who need support.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry said:”We need to stop ever-greater numbers of people from being plunged into homelessness. That’s why we will continue to press the government to build more homes, bring thousands of homes back into use and re-establish social rent as a valid, long-term option.”
Shelter Scotland Director Alison Watson added:”The situation in Glasgow has continued to deteriorate since the Council declared a housing emergency in 2023.
“We urgently need bold, radical action. But we know Glasgow City Council can’t tackle the housing emergency on its own without serious support from the Scottish and UK Government.”
Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland(Image: Daily Record)
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “We have continued to experience increasing numbers of homelessness presentations which is to be expected given we are dealing with a housing emergency on top of the current pressures associated with Home Office decisions.
“As the numbers in temporary accommodation continue to rise, so do our costs.
“However, there is a great deal of work going on to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation as well as work around preventing homelessness.
“Without such a significant focus on the prevention of homelessness, the use (and cost) of temporary accommodation would be significantly higher.”
Last weekend there were angry clashes in Falkirk after a group Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures held a demo outside the town’s Cladhan Hotel, which is used to house asylum seekers, and others. Stand Up to Racism Scotland, Falkirk Trades Union Council and local residents organised a counter demonstration.
Dr Nick McKerrell a Senior Lecturer in Law at Glasgow Caledonian University says Scotland has a more liberal approach towards housing refugees than the rest of the UK.
He added:”Scotland has gone in its own direction on homelessness law for many years. Although when first introduced in 1977 it was a UK framework a number of significant differences have developed with the system across the border.
“For those who have been granted refugee status in the UK the critical change came with the abolition of what was known as the “priority need” test.
“This has been scrapped in Scotland since 2013. This test allowed councils to prioritise different groups of unintentionally homeless people to be housed. In practice due to the limited amount of social housing it meant that unless you were a priority it would be unlikely that you would be housed permanently. Priority need generally included families with children and individuals thought of as “vulnerable”.
“By abolishing it the idea was that our laws in Scotland towards the homeless would be more expansive and inclusive.
“Although local authorities even a decade ago warned that it could put too much pressure on the housing system. If no-one was a priority then it would be difficult to fulfil the statutory obligation of housing all unintentionally homeless individuals such would be the numbers.
“England still retains the priority need test within its legal system. This means it is nearly impossible for a single refugee to be a “priority” for social housing unless they can establish that they are a “vulnerable” person with a disability or serious illness.
“There has been an increase in single people becoming refugees in the last few years which has exacerbated the problem.
“Therefore with no such limitation here it means homeless single refugees can travel to Glasgow from Belfast, Birmingham, London, Manchester and Liverpool and be treated the same as any other unintentionally homeless person in Scotland.”
Dr Nick McKerrell, Senior Lecturer in Law in the Department of Economics and Law at Glasgow Caledonian University