Official Report 370KB pdf
Good afternoon and welcome back. The first item of business is time for reflection, which will be led by John Dalton, a member of the Crisis Scotland lived experience campaigns group.
Thank you for this opportunity. I represent the lived experience group at Crisis Scotland, the national homelessness charity, so I bring reflections from many others.
We, as a group, meet in the Crisis skylight centre just metres away on the Royal Mile, yet we sometimes feel that this place is miles away. When we needed help, Crisis was there for us. The insights we bring are key to understanding the complexity of homelessness. It is usually the end point of missed opportunities and services that do not join up. We share our reflections so that those in power may listen.
A famous story—“Million Dollar Murray”—that captures this was first told in The New Yorker. Murray was a homeless veteran who spent a decade on the streets struggling with alcohol and trauma. Time after time, the police picked him up and, time after time, he ended up in hospital, detox, a cell and back on the street. One day, somebody added up the cost of ambulances, emergency admissions, treatment and police time. One officer summed it up: “It cost us $1 million not to do something about Murray.” Let me say that again—it cost $1 million not to do something. At every point, people were trying to help—police, paramedics, doctors and detox workers. Each one held a piece of Murray’s life, but no one held the whole of it. Nobody stepped in early to simply offer him a home first and build the support around him.
Many of us know what it is to be in that position—to be seen only in crisis and never before it. That is why ending homelessness is everybody’s business. No single service can do it alone; we can only end it together. Proper prevention does work; it gives people threatened with homelessness room to think and time to breathe in the midst of uncertainty, and it can avert disaster. A door opened sooner can change a whole life.
We leave you with a question that we have asked ourselves, too. Do you truly believe that homelessness can be ended? Many in this chamber have said that it can be, and we believe that, too. What matters is whether that belief shapes the choices made here.
Please remember that, just metres from here, there are people wishing that this place felt a little closer.