Crisis Scotland, the national charity for people experiencing homelessness, has responded to today's Programme for Government, welcoming the commitment to ending homelessness for everyone while warning that without a funded delivery plan for the new incoming prevention duties, this goal will remain out of reach.

Maeve McGoldrick, Head of Policy and Communications at Crisis Scotland, said:

“We welcome the First Minister’s ambition to end homelessness for everyone, outlined in today’s Programme for Government. The £50 million Homelessness Prevention Fund committed over 10 years is a welcome step to help transition away from a crisis management approach and towards a preventative and early action model of support.

“But today's announcement lacked the much-needed detail on how the homelessness prevention duties, due to commence in less than two years, will actually be delivered. We urge government to make this a priority and frontload the newly announced prevention budget to deliver on this much needed transformation.

“We also welcome the recognition that creating new Housing First tenancies is essential to helping people off the streets. However, the ambition set out in Programme for Government is woefully below the level of need across Scotland.

“We believe ending homelessness for everyone in Scotland is achievable by 2040. But ambition alone will not get us there. What we need now is speed, strong leadership from the First Minister, and a relentless focus on results, and getting the numbers down, year after year."