Funds given to Glasgow City Mission: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money including additional funds have been given by the Scottish Government to the Glasgow city mission in Glasgow?

2. If funding has been given, was this requested or offered by the Scottish Government?

3. Were the funds restricted and if so what was the ring fence for?

4. Do you agree with people sleeping on floors with sleeping bags and camping mats? X30 + on a floor crushed into a small room?

5. Were you aware of this happening? People sleeping on floors with sleeping bags and camping mats? X30 + on a floor crushed in?

6. How much money including additional funds have been given by the Scottish Government to the Simon Community Scotland to help with the housing crisis?

7. Were the funds restricted if so what for?

8. If funding has been given, was this requested or offered by the Scottish Government?

In correspondence dated 16 February 2024 you clarified that your enquiry relates to funding and additional funding provided to Glasgow City Mission and Simon Community Scotland within the current financial year (2023/24) in connection with the 'homeless rough sleeping crisis in Glasgow'.

Response

The answers to your questions are:

1. How much money including additional funds have been given by the Scottish Government to the Glasgow city mission in Glasgow?

In the current financial year (2023/24) Glasgow City Mission have received a total of £125,533 of Scottish Government funding to support the implementation of a rapid rehousing welcome centre (RRWC) in Glasgow over the winter months.

2. If funding has been given, was this requested or offered by the Scottish Government?

Grant funding was requested.

3. Were the funds restricted and if so what was the ring fence for?

Funds were restricted to:

• Staffing costs for RRWC project manager, six night team staff, and a team of bank staff.
• Staff training costs
• Cost of temporarily extending RRWC opening hours and procuring four additional hotel rooms for use as emergency access accommodation on a short-term basis over a period of extremely cold weather.
• Cost of extending RRWC opening hours to 7am and procuring six additional hotel rooms for use as emergency access accommodation for the remainder of the RRWC's operational period, which ends on 31 March 2024.

4. Do you agree with people sleeping on floors with sleeping bags and camping mats? X30 + on a floor crushed into a small room?

We have interpreted this question as seeking a view or opinion as opposed to describing information that you seek. Section 8(1)(c) of FOISA relates to recorded information and does not cover opinions or thoughts.

As part of our duty to provide advice and assistance the following information , which gives additional context, has been provided outwith FOISA:

The Scottish Government made a commitment in 2020 [1] to end the use of night shelter and dormitory style provision in future, guided by the recommendations [2] of the independent Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group [3], which recognised that this form of accommodation does not provide a safe or dignified way to support people at risk of rough sleeping. To support this transition, we established and agreed to provide funding towards rapid rehousing welcome centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

[1] Night shelters to be phased out - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
[2] Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group: tackling homelessness following coronavirus - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
[3] Action on homelessness and rough sleeping - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

5. Were you aware of this happening? People sleeping on floors with sleeping bags and camping mats? X30 + on a floor crushed in?

We are aware of pressures experienced by Glasgow City Mission in the operation of the RRWC in Glasgow this year, including as a result of the Home Office streamlined asylum process. Additional funding (included in total amount provided above) was made available to respond to those pressures by increasing the centre's opening capacity.

6. How much money including additional funds have been given by the Scottish Government to the Simon Community Scotland to help with the housing crisis?

Simon Community Scotland received £70,000 of Scottish Government funding for personalised budgets to be utilised across both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

7. Were the funds restricted if so what for?

Funding was restricted to payments made to individuals (on a cash first basis where this is appropriate) from personalised budget funding by frontline or street outreach teams for the purpose of:

• Supporting people in situations of extreme hardship by providing frontline homelessness workers with access to funds with few barriers to low levels of spending.
• Building on the assertive outreach approach taken by frontline workers by empowering them to make immediate decisions centred around the specific needs of each individual.
• Provision of personalised budgets, which can be used for a variety of different purposes in order to prevent homelessness and/or rough sleeping by assisting people to access support in a dignified way via commissioned homelessness services.

8. If funding has been given, was this requested or offered by the Scottish Government?

Funding was requested by the recipient organisation in response to a request from Scottish Government officials regarding personalised budget spend in the previous year.

As part of our duty to provide advice and assistance the following information, which gives additional context, has been provided outwith FOISA:.

We have provided funding for personalised budgets since 2017 as part of our commitment to support frontline staff in their work with people experiencing homelessness. This funding is provided to third sector organisations who are directly commissioned by local authorities to provide frontline outreach services as these organisations are considered to provide the best link to statutory services. We engage with recipients of personalised budget funding each year to assess how funding has been utilised and to ascertain future funding requirements.

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