The Rough Sleepers Initiative in Scotland

The following is a Statement prepared by: Robert Aldridge, Scottish Council for Single Homeless; Liz Nicholson, Shelter Scotland; Connie Krauss-Cuthbert, Edinburgh Campaign and Services for Homeless People; Isobel Anderson, researcher on homelessness issues;; Wendy Johnston, City of Dundee Council; Margaret Taylor, Glasgow Homelessness Network; Alastair Cameron, Scottish Churches Housing Agency; Steve Ebbitt, Glasgow Simon Community; Paul Hannan, Aberdeen Cyrenians; and Kathleen Caskie, the Big Issue in Scotland.

The Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) was introduced to Scotland in 1997 and formally ended as a separate programme in March 2003 . It was a new way of looking at homelessness, concentrating specifically on people who were actually on the streets, as opposed to wider homelessness situations like staying in bed and breakfast hotels or living "care of" other families.

When the Scottish Executive took over from the Scottish Office in 1999 it set a new target of ensuring that no-one need sleep rough by the end of 2003.

What has happened?

Twice a year, the Scottish Executive's own information gives a snapshot of people sleeping rough over the course of a week. The most recent figures show that the number of people sleeping rough has declined over the last three years but that this decline has not been steady. The most recent figure, in October 2003, is 328, down from around 500 in May 2001.

This does not mean that there are only 328 or so people in Scotland who sleep rough. Most organisations report higher numbers over the course of a longer period. No count method is perfect but we believe that the trend that it shows - of an initial big reduction but then falling at a reduced rate or a levelling off - is consistent with organisations' own experience.

How successful has the Rough Sleepers Initiative been?

The RSI has been one of the most significant government programmes of the last 10 years. Over £40 million has gone in to provide new services, often in areas that had no services at all beforehand. Some of the money has gone into new accommodation, some into funding staff to work with street homeless people, some into specialist services that recognise problems like mental health, abuse or addiction. Without that level of funding and these new services the numbers of rough sleepers would have continued to rise and the problem would be very much worse now than it was in the early 1990s.

But there are still people sleeping rough in Scotland. What is more, there are still people who face very little choice but to sleep rough. The Scottish Executive's target talks of ending the "need" to sleep rough. That can sometimes be interpreted as follows: that if there are empty hostel spaces on nights that people are sleeping rough then that person did not "need" to sleep rough. However, that is too simplistic. People often cannot take up accommodation offers for quite a lot of reasons: the accommodation might be in quite different places; the accommodation may not be able to offer the support they need. There may be fears about security and safety in some types of accommodation.

So does this mean that the target has not been met?

We think the RSI has achieved important things and still needs to go achieving greater things. And one of the things it has shown is that the target - set in the early days of the programme - is far too simplistic to tell us much about what is really happening. It was probably important, early on, to have a target, in order to drive political commitment. There has been that political commitment, with the resulting reduction in numbers sleeping rough rather than the certain increase in the absence of that commitment. There is a better grasp now of the complex problems people sleeping rough face and a lot has been learned about how best to deal with this complexity. Squabbling over the target could distract us from the much more important discussion about what has been achieved and what still needs to be done.

So what needs to happen now?

The rising tide of rough sleeping has been stemmed and, in many areas there have been reductions in the number of people sleeping rough. However, those reductions have been achieved only as a result of big investments in new services. The gains of recent years could be at risk if there is not continuing commitment. Also, such gains as there have been may have been among clients with less complex problems. It may be that the people remaining on the streets have suffered much more damage in their lives so far and need more sustained and specialist help. So, as well as recognising the significant commitment that the RSI has been we need also to ensure that the plight of people sleeping rough remains a priority.

Here are some of the things that need to be done:
a) Local councils need to keep funding services that have been developed to help rough sleepers.
b) Local councils' homelessness strategies need to emphasise other services that people need: like help with addiction problems.
c) All old-fashioned hostels need to be replaced by small-scale modern facilities that offer support and safety as well as a roof over the head.
d) New services need to continue to be developed, much more tailored to the quite different needs people have and based on listening to what people say they need. Rules and regulations within accommodation need to be suited for the complex needs that some people have.
e) All levels of government need to make sure that policies in areas like benefits, asylum, anti-social behaviour and drugs do not undermine good work being carried out through rough sleeping programmes.
f) More new affordable housing for rent needs to be a priority: this is essential to tackle homelessness in the broadest sense and make sure that specialist services can be targeted on people who are literally on the streets.

It would be a tragic waste if, having come so far, the next few years witness a reversal of fortunes for rough sleepers.