Question reference: S5W-35816
- Asked by: Neil Findlay, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 8 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 16 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to end the reported high death rate among homeless people.
Answer
Each one of these deaths is a tragedy. We are committed to ending homelessness once and for all and the recently published statistics on homeless deaths, while experimental, will help us further understand the challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness.
We set out a renewed commitment to ending homelessness in our updated action plan of October 2020. This plan is backed by a £50 million Ending Homelessness Together fund, most of which is used to help local authorities prioritise settled accommodation for people. Our plan is clear on the importance of improved joint working between homelessness, mental health and substance use services, and we are scaling up Housing First for those with more complex needs to improve both health and housing outcomes.
We know that over half of the homeless deaths reported were drug related. The First Minister has allocated more than £250 million to tackle drug deaths in Scotland and appointed Angela Constance as the new minister for drugs policy.