Homelessness can happen to anyone, it's time to change misconceptions

There are a whole range of different factors that can lead to someone losing their home – from a relationship breaking down or ending, to financial problems – for example a job loss – to domestic violence or substance abuse.

It can happen to anyone. There are a lot of misconceptions around homelessness – of what someone experiencing homelessness should look like – but we support people from all walks of life. I sometimes think everyone should work in an organisation like Crisis for a day, because it would show them that the idea they have in their head of homelessness just isn’t right.

I’ve had highly successful professional individuals coming to me for support – people working as doctors and lecturers, who have lost everything. I’m supporting a medical professional, whose homelessness came about after a bereavement. She fell into arears and things began to escalate whereby the instability of her homelessness has had a knock-on effect on rest of her life.

But there’s no doubt that pressure on homelessness services in Scotland is rising. We’ve seen that in our frontline work in Edinburgh and the Lothians – with more and more people coming to us for help.

New annual figures, released today, show the same – with the number of people experiencing homelessness now at its highest since records began. They show more people sleeping on the street – the number of applications where at least one member of the household had slept rough the night before they went for help was up by 28% since last year – and a record number of people trapped in temporary accommodation.

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The figures also show more children living in homelessness – there are now more than 15,000 children growing up without knowing what it’s like to have a settled home, and more than 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation.

You can see the damage that living in temporary accommodation does to a child, particularly if they’re in a hotel or B&B. School attendance can drop, family may be barred from visiting – even cooking healthy meals can become really challenging.

Local authorities are doing their best, but demand is rising so fast that they are left in an impossible situation – in that context, it’s clear we need to do more than just business as normal. Crisis provides support to anyone who needs it, but without structural change, more and more people will be forced to services like ours for help.

The frustrating thing is that it doesn’t need to be this way. We know from our frontline work what causes homelessness, and when you know what causes something, you can learn how to stop it happening in the first place.

For example, we do a lot of work with Job Centres, because that’s where you can find hidden homelessness. The Job Centre is often the first place where someone tells their story, so by operating there we can reach people earlier – before problems pile up – and offer support to help them keep their home.

You find a lot of people don’t know their rights – if they are facing eviction, we can offer information, advice and guidance, so they are empowered, and to make sure they can make informed choices.

Michelle McClory (Image: Handout)

It's so important to get people help as early as possible, because it’s really easy for things to spiral out of control. Homelessness has a huge impact on every part of a person’s life – relationships, mental health, physical health – so the earlier you act the better.

But although the situation is really challenging, I’m still optimistic we can end homelessness. I know we can do it because I see the proof every single day – because this service changes people’s lives. That’s how I stay hopeful – because I know the difference this work makes – there are people who are alive because of the support we provide.

There’s no mystery to this – our services are proof of what works. We need more social and affordable housing, so people can move out of temporary accommodation and plan the rest of their lives, and local authorities need more support, because they’re operating under more and more pressure all the time. And we need to change the law to allow people to get help earlier and to widen responsibility for preventing homelessness.

If we do that, we can build a country where everyone has a safe, secure place to call home.