Homeless village won’t be ghetto, says charity founder as royals visit
SCOTLAND’S first homeless village will not deteriorate into a ghetto, its creator has insisted while admitting the radical plan might not work.
The settlement of 10 two-bedroom homes in Edinburgh, is intended to prove giving people the keys to a real home, instead of temporary housing in hostels or bed and breakfasts, will help solve homelessness.
Speaking ahead of a visit today by Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle, Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn said there was overwhelming evidence that a housing first approach will work.
The royal couple, who will marry in May, are to visit Social Bite’s cafe, which employs homeless people and asks customers to “pay it forward”, paying extra to buy food for those who can’t afford their own.
They will be the latest in a string of celebrity visitors to the charity. Leonardo di Caprio had lunch at Social Bite’s restaurant Home in the west end of Edinburgh in November 2016, while the Duchess of Cornwall and George Clooney have both been to Social Bite’s Rose Street cafe.
The latest development, the homeless village, is expected to welcome its first tenants later this year. Josh Littlejohn, founder of Social Bite, said residents in the new community would be well supported. “We will have five full-time workers there 24/7 and will be linking with Edinburgh college and mainstream employers to get people work placements.
“It will be community focused and highly supported. It might not work, but it is up to us to demonstrate it can,” he said.
He said homeless Scots should be given a permanent residence rather than live in “degrading and isolating” hostels where addictions or mental health problems fester.
“If people going into hostels haven’t got an addiction they develop one, if they have an addiction or a mental health problem already, it gets worse,” he said.
As well as the Granton site, which will feature eco-friendly “nest” houses which can be moved if necessary, Social Bite has also struck a deal with housing providers in Edinburgh and Glasgow to test the benefit of putting people straight into a mainstream tenancy with support.
Littlejohn argues this will save money which can be used to fund more support, and homeless hostels and other temporary accommodation should be phased out: “At present, people deteriorate, but the cost to the police, health and jail budgets as well as the cost to the individuals themselves is written off.
“We should give them the keys to a house and the right support. The difficult thing is to dual-fund two systems until it becomes mainstream.”
Social Bite commissioned research from Heriot Watt university which unequivocally demonstrates a “housing first” strategy will work, he says.
“The findings echoed the voices of almost everyone I ever speak to. The academics said: ‘don’t ask us to do more research – it works’.it is overwhelmingly the best strategy. It is difficult for councils or housing associations if someone has an addiction problem or had a traumatic childhood, to give them the keys to a house. But it works, overwhelmingly. You wouldn’t think it would, but it does,” he said. “It just needs the right support and capitalising on a significant scale.”
Littlejohn will be investing money raised during a sleepout in December to rapidly rehouse homeless people, in partnership with Edinburgh’s Edindex network, and Glasgow’s Wheatley Group.
But he is calling for Government and local councils to collaborate in a “wholesale transformation” of services, adding: “We can’t do it on our own.”
This week the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and communities Committee also backed the Housing First concept, after hearing evidence about its success in Finland and other countries.
In a report on homelessness the committee said it was better than gradually easing people back towards a full tenancy: “We heard clear evidence from those who had undertaken pilots in Scotland, as well as from international comparisons, that Housing First leads to positive outcomes”, the report stated.
“The Committee recommends that the Scottish Government, in partnership with local government, implements a Scottish Housing First policy.”