55 - The Housing Bill part 2: Homelessness prevention duties with Ewan Aitken

The Scottish Housing News Podcast

Kieran Findlay and Jimmy Black put the Holyrood turmoil to one side and continue their exploration of various elements of the Scottish Government’s new Housing Bill with a look at proposed new homelessness prevention measures.

The legislation will introduce an ‘ask and act’ duty on social landlords and other bodies, such as health boards and the police, to ask about a person’s housing situation and take proactive steps to avoid them becoming homeless wherever possible.

But what could these proactive steps involve, do the measures go far enough or are they asking too much of already stretched resources?

Ewan Aitken, the chief executive of homelessness charity Cyrenians, has the answers. Ewan co-chaired the Homelessness Prevention Task and Finish Group, on whose report, arguably, the homelessness elements of the new Housing Bill are based.

A transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/housing-bill-part-2-homelessness-prevention-duties-podcast-transcript

Jimmy Black has written a blog to accompany the episode here: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/blacks-blog-homelessness-how-to-ask-act

Further reading: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/scottish-government-publishes-new-housing-bill

Kieran Findlay is the editor of Scottish Housing News. Jimmy Black is a former Dundee housing convener and housing justice campaigner.

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