Simon says let’s deal with homelessness at Xmas

Lorraine McGrath is Chief Executive at Simon Community Scotland

The festive season is a time when many of us will pause to reflect on our lives at work and at home.  For most of us, our homes have been a haven like never before. Many of us have also spent most of our working hours at home.  It’s been such a challenging time, but can you imagine how much more difficult life would be if you had no home? 

Simon Community is Scotland’s largest provider of homeless services, supporting over 6000 people each year. Our goal is to help change the future for anyone experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. I am hugely grateful to our partner organisations and also to the many businesses and organisations that help us achieve this. 

Our Christmas Care Appeal is seeking donations to enable us to give  an individually tailored care pack every time we support someone into emergency  and temporary accommodation, or into a permanent home of their own. For the cost of a Secret Santa present we can give the gift of dignity and comfort to someone, which can mean more than you could ever imagine to someone in total crisis with little more than they can carry or wear.

Our Street Teams in Edinburgh and Glasgow work 365 days a year to respond with support and care to people at risk of rough sleeping. Every week we support 50 people or more to safety and away from sleeping on the streets. 

But it’s never just about that immediate response, we always strive for people to have long term safety and stability, no matter how great the challenges. During the pandemic we took over the running of hotels in Edinburgh and Glasgow, to ensure that no-one was on the streets. A silver lining of the pandemic has meant many people continue to benefit from the new ways of  multi-agency working that emerged. Many more people are now able to accept our support to find safety, stability and recovery, often for the first time in years. 

Our support takes many forms, but is all based on relationships.  Our Edinburgh and Glasgow Hubs are one stop shops for people experiencing homelesness. In Glasgow, our new Access Hub saw 3,000 people in its first year alone. Every night, our supported accommodation services provide safety, security and support. We are their home for as long as they need our help. We deliver Housing First in Edinburgh, where over 120  people who experienced chronic homelessness now have their own permanent home with ongoing support and care, including a programme for Simon Community to directly provide 30 of those homes ourselves.

I am often humbled by the work of our teams and no more so when hearing about a call  we got from the father whose daughter we were supporting into one of our new flats. A father who doubted that something so good could actually be happening. Directly providing a permanent home for his daughter and others who have been struggling for many years  is an incredible step forward for us as a homelessness charity.

So much of life that most of us take for granted is much harder when you're homeless, like having a bank account or being able to access the digital world, that we are all now so dependent on to function. We have a wonderful partnership with TSB, making it much easier for people to open an account and we are so grateful, that through donations and support, we have been able to connect hundreds of people across the country with a digital lifeline.

Please help if you can. And if you think your company might be interested in supporting

Simon Community Scotland,  then please do get in touch. Everyone deserves a safe place to live and access to the support they need: www.justgiving.com/campaign/christmascare2021.

Lorraine McGrath is Chief Executive at Simon Community Scotland: www.simonscotland.org.