Supported Housing Task and Finish Group Main Report

2. Shared accommodation: how it evolved

2.1 Debates on effectiveness

Shared forms of accommodation have long been associated with the experience of homelessness in Scotland and across the UK and beyond, from large-scale hostels and shelters to small-scale supported accommodation and care homes.

Whether it provides an effective response to homelessness, or whether people want to stay in it, continues to spark debate.

Some of the debate is driven by the desire to right an historical wrong that routinely congregated people experiencing homelessness into basic accommodation, enabled by a culture that accepted this as ‘good enough.’ While this view is now far less tolerated in the professional sector, it can stubbornly persist outside of it, despite the evolving awareness that it is not personal decisions, but structural, social and economic factors, that drives homelessness among people most exposed to those factors:

“The temptation is to argue for the benefits of hostels, hotels and similar, on the basis that they are better than no accommodation at all. But in the midst of this crisis, we must somehow account for the experiences of those who avoid and abandon these forms of accommodation because they find them less tolerable than sleeping rough.” [ref 10]

The policy in Scotland over the last 25 years has been to move away from shared hostel style accommodation. But this progress has also focused minds on the need to make distinct and defend the shared accommodation models which are commissioned to provide a specialist housing and support service equipped to meet specific equalities and/or health and social care considerations.

However, the complexity of the funding arrangements (section 5.5), the variable quality of buildings currently used, the different approaches to support, and the use of shared-unit temporary accommodation models (commonly called rapid access or emergency accommodation) have cluttered the landscape and blurred the edges between suitable and unsuitable temporary accommodation and shared and supported accommodation.

2.2 Learning by doing

In Scotland, this debate has moved on further and faster than in many other places by a progressive sector and parliament committed to modernisation and inclusion. Over the last 25 years, this has delivered major changes, including a strong rights-based approach to housing and support, a committed policy of rapid rehousing and Housing First and the closure of most large-scale hostels and ‘shared-air’ communal-style night shelters.

However, in 2024 we are seeing an isolated reemergence of night shelter provision and a more widespread use of unsuitable temporary accommodation, both in the context of housing pressures and rising homelessness - see section 4.

And as Housing First branches out, we have learned more about the circumstances where it does not work or where people do not want a mainstream housing option at this point in time. Housing First is designed to help redress the multiple and often severe disadvantages faced by some people who experience homelessness and who are braving a range of other challenges that have not been fully met by existing services. It does this by providing ordinary housing in an ordinary community and wraps around the person support that is person-centred, strengths-based, flexible and not time limited. Housing First rejects the idea that many people are not ‘ready’ for housing and with tenancy success rates currently at 90%, there is no doubt it works for the vast majority of people who can access it in Scotland. However, the group of people that it does not work for is whom this work seeks to ensure there are feasible and sustainable housing options for.

2.3 Toward a better-defined role

This report makes the case for the circumstances in which supported housing is used and to define what the optimum scale, quality and commissioning arrangements of this provision should be in Scotland.

The task and finish group were committed to bring clarity to the task ahead, which recognises that:

(i) Most of us, with the right support if we need it, can build and live our lives in an ordinary home as part of an ordinary community.

(ii) A different type of housing option is needed for a small but hugely important group of people who can’t maintain a mainstream housing option, or who don’t want it at this point in their lives.

(iii) Supported housing can play a key role in these cases, providing it meets the optimum service design outlined at section 6. Across current provision, the extent to which this optimum design is being met varies.

(iv) Safeguarding is a significant factor for all forms of shared housing; balancing safety with autonomy and choice is inherently challenging in communal settings, but aspiring to do this well must be a core component.

In scope is provision that currently tends to be smaller in size and can be characterised in general terms by shared kitchen facilities and living area, usually with own bedroom and ensuite washing facilities. It tends to be recognised as ‘homeless’ accommodation, locally and across professional sectors, and is mainly provided on a temporary basis. It may involve a regulated housing support service and is named variously as supported accommodation, supported housing, residential or resettlement accommodation. For the purpose of this report, we will use the term ‘supported housing’ throughout.

This report is not focused on all other accommodation that is provided in an interim or temporary basis for people who are homeless, including provision in hostels, lodgings, hotels, night shelters, B&Bs, welcome centres or rapid access accommodation.

However it is intended that by reprovisioning and targeting supported housing in Scotland, we can contribute to creating more appropriate and settled housing options that reduce the need for using unsuitable temporary and shared accommodation.