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Shelter threatens Glasgow Council with legal action over ‘unlawful’ homeless policy
Shelter Scotland has announced it is preparing to take Glasgow City Council to court for “unlawfully denying homeless people temporary accommodation”.
A group of formerly homeless people hand delivered a solicitor’s letter to the council yesterday, which outlined the charity’s intention to seek a judicial review of Glasgow Council’s homeless policy unless it stops denying homeless people temporary accommodation. The letter outlines how the council can avoid legal action.
Shelter is accusing the council of ‘gatekeeping’, which means preventing people from accessing the homeless services they are entitled to by law.
Glasgow Council has refuted Shelter’s gatekeeping claim, calling it “untrue”. It added that the court action was an “unhelpful distraction” from its work tackling homelessness in the city.
If the judicial review goes ahead, Shelter will ask the court to declare that the council is acting unlawfully and should submit a revised homelessness strategy to the Scottish government which puts in place a plan to guarantee temporary accommodation to those who need it.
Unlike in England, homeless people do not need to prove they are of ‘priority need’ in order to access temporary accommodation. The ‘priority need test’ was abolished by the Scottish government in 2012.
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Earlier this year, Glasgow Council was placed under review by the Scottish government after it was revealed that of the 3,535 incidences in 2018/19 in which people were declared homeless in Scotland were denied temporary accommodation, 95% occurred in Glasgow.
Glasgow Council said theses figures suggest homelessness information is not being recorded uniformly across the country.
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “Quite simply, enough is enough. The facts are clear: Glasgow City Council is breaking the law, homeless people are being forced onto the streets, officials are unable or unwilling to tackle the problem, and the numbers are getting worse not better.”
In January 2018, Shelter compiled a report on incidences of gatekeeping in Scotland between July 2016 and November 2017. Of the 370 gatekeeping cases recorded, 30% (109) were in Glasgow.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “[Shelter’s] own letter accepts that there may have been over reporting in Glasgow which demonstrates they know their accusation of gatekeeping is also untrue.
“As they are well aware, there are significant pressures on our homelessness accommodation service and we are working with the Scottish Housing Regulator and partners in the third and housing sectors to tackle these challenges.
“Rather than raising money for court action, it would be helpful if Shelter worked constructively with us to tackle the pressing issue of homelessness. We share a common aim and threats of legal action are an unhelpful distraction to this crucial work.”
