17 hours ago
Are refugees given priority for social housing in Glasgow?
Those who get the blame are not necessarily those who caused the problem but often can be suffering from the problem just as much as anyone else.
The homelessness crisis in Glasgow has spiralled out of control and shows no sign of abating.
In fact, it is getting worse.
Today is World Refugee Day and while Glasgow prides itself on being supportive as a city, not everyone approves of rolling out the welcome mat.
Many people have argued that migrants and refugees are getting homes ahead of the settled population.
Last month, a senior councillor responded to say migrants were not given priority over local people for social housing.
The reaction in some quarters was to basically call the councillor a liar.
Many people feel that migrants, particularly refugees, are being put to the front of the queue for housing at the expense of people who have lived here all or most of their lives.
The language usually refers to 'our own'.
So, what are the facts?
Homelessness has increased and Glasgow City Council declared a housing emergency in December 2023. Since then, the situation has become intolerable.
In the last three months available, February, March and April, the council received 2017 homelessness applications and, of these, 763 were from refugee households.
Non-refugee homeless applications outnumbered refugees by more than two to one.
At the last count, there were 4236 households in temporary accommodation, including hotels.
Of these, 2342 have refugee status.
So bad has the homelessness crisis become, the council is forced to spend more than £40million a year on hotels for homeless people just to prevent rough sleeping.
In hotels and bed and breakfasts, the council has 1721 households. Of these 1246 have refugee status.
Refugees in hotels outnumber non-refugees by almost three to one.
Recently, the Glasgow Times spoke to a refugee couple who spent more than a year in a hotel for homeless people.
When someone, an individual or family, is granted leave to remain, they are not automatically given a tenancy.
Instead, they face the same hardship as other homeless people who are not refugees.
Based on the numbers, refugees are more likely to be in hotels than other people.
The criteria to be moved out of a hotel into a temporary accommodation flat make no mention of refugee status.
Glasgow City Council said: 'Each household's situation is unique, and we make decisions on moving to them to an alternative placement on an individual basis. The Unsuitable Accommodation Order is a factor in the decision to move a household to alternative accommodation.'
When asked if there are any circumstances that give priority to someone to be allocated a hotel room or temporary accommodations, the council said there were not.
When asked, 'Is there any priority throughout the processes given to people with refugee status that is not afforded to other people?' the answer was: 'No.'
The largest provider of social rented homes in Glasgow is Wheatley Homes.
Their allocation policy by law is based on housing need.
Priority is given to statutory homeless people, people who are living in overcrowded houses, those who are occupying houses which don't meet the tolerable standard and those who have large families and people living under unsatisfactory housing conditions.
Again, no specific criteria are mentioned about refugees or arriving in the city from another country.
The homelessness emergency has put pressure on Wheatley Homes Glasgow's stock.
It commits to give 60% of its new lets in Glasgow each year to homeless households.
For 2024/25 and 2025/26, that commitment is for at least 1600 lets.
The social landlord has an ambitious wider target of making 11,000 homes available to tackle rough sleeping by the end of 2026.
It has several bands based on level of housing need. The top three are:
Band A: Wheatley Group tenants who require urgent re-housing to prevent homelessness
Band B: Statutory homeless referrals
Band C: Preventing homelessness
The stated policies of both the council and Wheatley, as the biggest social landlord, do not mention refugees as a category.
The numbers in temporary accommodation and the extremely high number in hotels strongly suggest that refugees are not being fast-tracked into tenancies ahead of other people.
There is a finite amount of available homes and the flow of people coming through the asylum system is leading to more refugees on the waiting list for housing.
But there appears to be no evidence that they are getting preferential treatment.
The Glasgow Times also asked the housing minister, Paul McLennan, if refugees or migrants were given priority.
He said he knows from his time as a local councillor for many years that is not the case.
The increase in asylum seekers in Glasgow who then get refugee status has led to more people who need accommodation.
But according to the available numbers, policies and statements, they are treated the same as any other homeless person.
