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The Herald Scotland

Cash payments considered for Edinburgh homeless

Meanwhile rough sleeping is also on the rise, with on average 59 'unique individuals' sleeping on the streets per week from November to last month up from 37 in the same period the previous year. In response councillors have agreed to freeze allocations of council homes, except for people with mobility issues whose current housing doesn't meet their assessed needs and those awaiting discharge from hospital, to prioritise properties for families stuck in bed and breakfasts and free-up more spaces in temporary accommodation units. Rising homeless presentations paired with the loss of 500 beds within hotels the council was forced to stop using at the end of last year has further escalated the capital's housing emergency in recent months. This means the local authority is increasingly failing to meet its legal obligation to provide everyone assessed as homeless with suitable accommodation. Shelter Scotland said the council faced an "impossible task" and that the decision to suspend the normal letting policy "reflects the scale of the crisis and the urgent need to protect the 3,155 children currently stuck in temporary accommodation, as well as to prevent rising levels of rough sleeping". READ MORE: Councillors discussed the situation at a special housing committee on Friday, April 25, where the SNP group suggested people the council is failing to accommodate could be provided with emergency direct financial payments. SNP councillor Danny Aston said: "This is just pragmatic attempt to recognise that people are going to use money out of their own pockets anyway and to look at all options available. "A colleague came to me and told me about a case she'd had that involved a woman who had repeatedly presented at one of the council's locality offices as homeless. I think on the third or fourth time she'd been refused temporary accommodation, she'd gone at eight in the morning and waited for an hour even before the locality office had even opened, only to be told yet again there was no temporary accommodation available. "By that point she'd been each day using her Universal Credit to pay for hostel accommodation of a type that legally we can't procure." Head of homelessness, Nicky Brown, said handing out cash comes with "significant risks". He said: "If we were to widen out the opportunity to provide cash payments, for example, to a significant number of vulnerable people we would need to be absolutely crystal clear on the risks that may pose to them. "We would also need to think seriously about the risk to staff and handing out large amount of money in terms of audit for the council. 'In the cases that we have, where we provide very, very small cash payments to people on a very small scale, sometimes it's not the money that's the most positive impact on people's lives. It's the ability to have a conversation with people and ability to understand the needs and the challenges they have in their life and their presenting needs." Derek McGowan, the council's service director for housing and homelessness, added it would be "foreseeable" that if people felt they were going to get a cash payment "they may decide to come to Edinburgh and present as homeless on the basis of getting that". The committee agreed a report later in the year should outline "how people that the council is failing to accommodate are being, and could be supported". Convener Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron said this will "enable us to hear from officers [...] as to what are the current discretionary payments that are being made to people". Officers initially proposed suspending the lettings policy until the council was legally compliant again in terms of its obligations to accommodate people experiencing homelessness, with no time limit. However, councillors agreed this would be reviewed in June instead. Cllr Aston said: "We are keen that the precedent that is set today is not for an open ended acceptance that housing allocations are to be frozen. "We want officers to be coming back to this committee and asking for extensions at each opportunity, we think that's really important. We don't want a pattern to emerge where suspending allocations is the tool of choice here. "What it does is increases the pool of temporary accommodation without allowing the path for people to come out of temporary accommodation and into permanent settled accommodation. "So it's clear that it's only consequence will be to increase the number of people in temporary accommodation.' Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda said the long-term solutions "are only going to be secured from increased funding". While Councillor Tim Jones, Conservatives, said: "We are between a hard place and a rock. More from our Edinburgh Correspondent: "Legislation has been passed that has put you [officers] into this invidious position and we're asking you to perform a miracle. "I had a constituent very similar that Councillor Aston referred to. "The lady had repeatedly presented as homeless and by the efforts of my assistant we managed to get her somewhere to live by the end of the day. "That is what we are dealing with; people who are finding themselves in a very difficult situation." Shelter Scotland Director, Alison Watson, said: 'We welcome the City of Edinburgh Council's urgent action to tackle the worsening housing emergency. 'The decision to suspend the normal letting policy reflects the scale of the crisis and the urgent need to protect the 3,155 children currently stuck in temporary accommodation, as well as to prevent rising levels of rough sleeping. 'This as an emergency response taken in extraordinary circumstances, with nearly three in five homelessness presentations not being provided with temporary accommodation when required. "The Council is facing an impossible task without enough homes or resources. This situation has not emerged overnight; it is the result of decades of underinvestment in social housing and a failure to provide councils with the tools they need to fulfil their legal duties. 'However, this is not a long-term solution. Edinburgh's housing emergency cannot be solved by crisis measures alone. We urgently need the Scottish Government to do more to support City of Edinburgh Council to meet all its legal duties and to ensure everyone has a safe, secure and affordable home.'