The Homelessness Prevention Pilots test approaches to early intervention and prevention. This fund will help organisations deliver ‘ask and act’ measures – new duties proposed in the Housing (Scotland) Bill that require public bodies to ask about a person’s housing situation early – and take action to prevent homelessness before it happens.

The extra funding is in addition to £4 million announced for the pilots in August last year and the extension will help maintain prevention capacity while final evaluation findings are completed and considered.

During a visit to an ‘ask and act’ pilot project in Edinburgh’s Wester Hailes yesterday, social justice and housing secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Preventing homelessness before it happens is one of the most important steps we can take to improve people’s lives.

“The work being carried out through these pilots is helping us understand how services can work together to identify risk earlier, intervene sooner and provide the support people need to stay in their homes and that is why I am pleased to confirm funding to extend them until March.

“This extension will ensure that valuable learning continues, that specialist expertise is retained, and that partners are supported as we prepare for the implementation of Scotland’s new homelessness prevention duties.

“Our aim is clear: to shift from managing homelessness crises to preventing them in the first place. We are investing more than £213m this year - partly through the local government settlement - on homelessness measures aimed at delivering better outcomes for individuals, families and communities across Scotland.”

Homelessness charity Crisis, which is a partner in the Wester Hailes project, published a report yesterday setting out what successful prevention looks like and how to get there.

It suggested that almost £100m of investment is required over the next two years so that hospitals, the police, prisons, councils, housing associations and Social Security Scotland are ready to proactively prevent homelessness under the upcoming regulations.

Maeve McGoldrick, head of policy at Crisis Scotland, said: “Crisis Scotland genuinely welcomes (this) announcement as a strong message that preventing homelessness is a top priority for government. The prevention pilots show what is possible when services step in early, and from our frontline experience in Wester Hailes we have seen people keep their home when they would otherwise have been pushed towards homelessness.

“Extending the funding for the next few months provides much needed continuity to all services involved in this innovative work. Importantly, it also allows time to plan for the important next stage: scaling up the learning and best practice across Scotland, in time for national commencement in 2028.”

Another charity welcomed the commitment to extend the pilots but highlighted that early intervention and prevention must become the norm when dealing with homelessness.

Janet Haugh, CEO of Right There, said: “(This) funding announcement is a very positive signal that the Scottish Government is taking prevention seriously when it comes to homelessness, and while we support any measure to address homelessness in a preventative manner we know that housing is not the sole cause of the problem.

“We need to move towards a more holistic approach that addresses issues such as poverty, mental health, addiction, and family breakdown which all contribute to people losing their homes, if we are serious about ending homelessness for good.”

Ms Haugh added: “As a nation we are very good at dealing with crises but not so good at putting measures in place to prevent them in the first place. We welcome the extension to fund ‘ask and act’ pilots and we hope this will be part of a long term preventative strategy which will address the root causes of homelessness and signal a move away from jumping from one crisis to the next.” 

Ask and act measures are expected to commence nationally in 2028.