News

The Scottish parliament passed the Homelessness (Scotland) Bill, committing itself to ending homelessness in Scotland within a decade.

The new legislation will see everyone who is assessed as being unintentionally homeless entitled to permanent accommodation by 2012.

The distinction between 'priority' and 'non-priority' applications for local authority assistance will be phased out, and 'probationary' tenancies will be provided for people judged to have made themselves homeless intentionally.

Social justice minister Margaret Curran said: "The implementation of this bill…will dramatically change the response to homelessness in Scotland. The bill will put in place the mechanisms to ensure that this change is managed, and sustained for the benefit of Scotland’s most vulnerable people."

Implementation of the bill will also lead to "modest changes" to the repossession process to help prevent the causes of homelessness, and a relaxing of the rules that require applicants to demonstrate a connection to the local area in which they are applying for assistance.

A successful amendment to the bill, introduced by Labour MSP for Airdrie and Shotts Karen Whitefield, will also allow ministers to regulate against the inappropriate use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children.

The new legislation will implement five of the 59 recommendations made by the homelessness taskforce, which was set up by the executive in 1999 to examine the problem of homelessness. Implementation of the remaining recommendations – which were all accepted by the executive – will be overseen by the new national Homelessness Monitoring Group.

Scottish Council for Single Homeless director and taskforce member Robert Aldridge said: "The new act aims to concentrate resources on assisting homeless people to be housed successfully rather than on investigating how they might be rationed out of the system."