Delivering the political will to end homelessness – a challenge to the Scottish Parliament

“Homelessness is the result of political decisions, and Scotland can end it altogether with the right political will” 

Crisis’ Lived Experience Campaign Group.  

These are the words of people with recent, lived experience of homelessness who, in writing of their support for their campaign to end all forms of homelessness in Scotland by 2040, agreed that it will require political will, leadership and cooperation in order to make the campaign goal a reality.  

The First Minister is expected to, very soon, deliver a statement on his priorities for government and specifically what his government will do in its first 100 days in office. Crisis has written to the First Minister asking that he use this upcoming statement to parliament to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to ending all forms of homelessness for good, as outlined in the SNP manifesto. We are asking the FM to use his first 100 days to kickstart the development of a strategy to achieve this goal by 2040, so that ending homelessness is in line with goals on delivering the housing supply needed across Scotland. We are also calling for new governance structures to be put in place to allow for the cross-portfolio strategy needed to make this aspiration a reality. Read our briefing here (LINK) 

 It will be an enormous, missed opportunity if the First Minister does not echo the commitment given by Nicola Sturgeon in her priorities of government statement in May 2021 to ‘work towards ending homelessness’ and we consider this a vital, first step on the latest road on Scotland’s journey to end homelessness for good.   

As homelessness is the most acute form of poverty, and in recent years often the consequence of the cost-of-living crisis, it was heartening to see three of the six political parties now represented in the Scottish Parliament include an explicit commitment to ending homelessness for good in their manifesto. Two of them went further and included manifesto commitments on ensuring that this is done by 2040 – in line with Crisis’ campaign. Along with all parties referencing work required to reduce homelessness, this demonstrates that the capacity for the political will asked for by people with lived experience of homelessness exists in this parliament. Even more so, we heard it from all party-political leaders when they visited our services in Edinburgh in April and shared their aspirations for ending homelessness (LINK).  

It is incumbent upon the 129 people elected to represent us as Members of the Scottish Parliament that they now do so. That they work cross-party and main such bold aspirations, and that the government works strategically across portfolios to do what is necessary to drive forward new policies - and implement them well, ensuring meaningful change needed to end all forms of homelessness in Scotland for good, by 2040, is achieved.