Extent, Nature, and Causes of Homelessness in Glasgow

Summary point: families
• Homelessness in families is a particular priority for services.
• 1 in 6 homeless applicants have dependent children, totalling over 2000 family applications
per year.
• It is not clear to what extent homeless families who present to neighbourhood offices are not
entered onto homeless lists, further increasing the size of the homeless families population.
Needs-based response
Clarification is needed about whether all homeless families are referred to the Homeless
Families Unit
The Homeless Strategy, and the work of the Homeless Partnership, require to ensure that
a comprehensive service to support homeless families is provided in both community and citycentre
based settings. All members of the Homeless Partnership have a responsibility to stop
cycles of homelessness within families.
Where a child is de-registered from a Glasgow school, in addition to a City Test, the
IHMS should always be searched to determine if the child is known to services provided by
other parts of the Council.
✓ An important measure of the success of homeless services should be the proportion of
homeless families with school-age children who are successfully registered and attend school.
Unless a family with school age children is fleeing an area, they should preferably be
rehoused in the same area.
✓ The Starting Well demonstration project in Glasgow indicates ways in which effective
support can be given to families of infants and children in deprived circumstances. Its potential
to either inform or provide services for homeless families should be pursued by the Homeless
Partnership.
7.9. Where do they come from
Figure 3 indicates where people who present as homeless provide as a last or current address
by Social Work geographical area teams (see Appendix 2), where codes can be given. Reliable
data only became available in June 2002. The areas generating most homeless presentations
are the East, North East and South, which account for over half of all presentations; however, all
areas contribute to the homeless population. About 90% of presentations to Glasgow City
Council come from Glasgow. Influx from other areas is not a major contributor to the homeless
population.
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