Over 150 people in tenancies thanks to Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder

A report released today shows that Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder has created more than 150 tenancies. Each represents an opportunity for someone to end their homelessness and receive support and encouragement to build and live their lives.

Housing First provides ordinary, settled housing as a first response for people whose homelessness is compounded by other disadvantages and experiences. The Housing First Scotland Pathfinder launched officially on 1 April 2019 and is the largest of its kind in the UK.

Social Bite committed £3m from fundraising income generated by its Sleep in The Park events, which engaged 18,000 people in mass sleep outs across 2017 and 2018. Social Bite also secured the initial housing pledges from providers to kick start the Pathfinder in 2018.

Jane Bruce, Chief Executive of Social Bite Scotland, said:
“We are so pleased to see significant numbers of people both in their own homes and also sustaining their tenancies. The programme is doing what we always hoped it would – genuinely breaking the cycle of homelessness by giving people the platform of a stable home alongside intensive support so they can start to build a life from a place of safety and security. No one said it was going to be easy, but progress so far shows that our determination to provide the right type of support to people in their own home is the right approach.

“We are determined to reach our goal of housing 830 people and can use the rich learning gained over the past six months to feed into the planning for the rest of the programme to ensure we hit that goal.”

The Pathfinder is supported by housing providers across the country with Wheatley Group leading, and with funding from the Scottish Government, Social Bite and Merchants House Glasgow. It is managed by Homeless Network Scotland and Corra Foundation. You can find out more about our Housing First here.