The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

1.1 This report presents findings from a module of questions in the 2006 Scottish Social Attitudes survey on public attitudes towards people experiencing homelessness. The module was funded by the Scottish Executive ³ to inform the work of the Awareness Raising and Best Practice subgroup of the Homelessness Monitoring Group. This subgroup advises the Scottish Government on how best to raise awareness on the reality of being homeless and how to disseminate accurate information and dispel myths about homelessness.

1.2 The overall aim of the module was to establish a baseline picture of public attitudes towards homelessness in Scotland. In particular, it addresses the following key questions:

Key questions

• How do people feel about homeless people and how do views vary between different groups?
• How far are public attitudes to homelessness in tune with the direction of Scottish Executive policy?

Policy background

1.3 Homelessness in Scotland increased dramatically during the 1990s. The number of applications to Scottish local authorities under homelessness legislation rose from 29,068 in 1989-1990 to 46,023 in 1999-00 - a 58% increase (Homelessness Task Force, 2002). The Homelessness Task Force was established in August 1999 in response to this dramatic rise, to make recommendations on how homelessness in Scotland could be prevented and, where it occurred, how it could be tackled more effectively. Its final report was published in 2002 and made a total of 59 recommendations. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 implemented many of these recommendations. Key changes introduced by the Acts relate to:

• 'Priority need' - local authorities are currently entitled to make a distinction between homeless people assessed to be in 'priority need' and those not so assessed. People might be in 'priority need' if they are particularly vulnerable, for example because they have dependent children or a mental health problem. Prior to the 2001 Act, if a person was not assessed as in 'priority need' they would not automatically be entitled to help finding new accommodation. The 2001 Act extended the rights of homeless people not in 'priority need' by stating they should be entitled to at least temporary accommodation. It also ensured that unintentionally homeless people in priority need were entitled to permanent accommodation. The 2003 Act went further, first by extending the definition of 'priority need' to include a number of groups not clearly covered by earlier legislation, and second by including a target to completely abolish the 'priority need' distinction by 2012. In 2005, the Communities Minister published a ministerial statement confirming the Executive's intention to abolish priority need by 2012. In practice, this will mean that the right to permanent accommodation will be extended to all people who find themselves unintentionally homeless.
• Intentionality - prior to the 2003 Act, local authorities had a duty to investigate whether a person applying as homeless had become homeless 'intentionally' or not. A person might be considered 'intentionally homeless' if they deliberately do, or fail to do, anything that results in their losing the right to occupy a property available to them. Examples might include becoming homeless due to (avoidable) rent arrears or anti-social behaviour. Where a person is assessed as being 'intentionally' homeless, they are only entitled to temporary accommodation and advice. The 2003 Act increases the rights of 'intentionally' homeless households by:
• changing the duty to investigate whether someone is 'intentionally' homeless to a power (so that local authorities are no longer required to investigate this at all), and
• introducing new rights to a Short Scottish Secure Tenancy ( SSST) with appropriate support to address the cause of 'intentionality' for all 'intentionally' homeless households (those evicted for anti-social behaviour or with an Anti-Social Behaviour Order against them may be excluded from this provision, although they are still entitled to temporary accommodation and support). If the initial tenancy is successful, it will be converted to a full tenancy after 12 months.

At the time of writing, a timescale for implementing these changes was still to be confirmed.

• Local connection - the 'local connection' provision of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 allows a local authority to refer homeless applicants (who must be in priority need and unintentionally homeless) to another local authority. This provision applies where the local authority believes the applicant does not have a local connection with their authority area, but does have a local connection with another authority. To establish a local connection, a person would need to prove they had been normally resident of their own choosing in that area, that they worked in the area or that they had family associations or other special connection to the area. The 2003 Act introduced provision to modify the 'local connection' test. The Scottish Government is currently considering how to take forward any modifications via a public consultation.

Why study public attitudes to homelessness?

1.4 The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 have been widely welcomed by homeless charities as introducing some of the most progressive homelessness legislation in Europe. For example, in their briefing on the 2003 Act, the Scottish Council for Single Homeless state:

"The Act introduces a change of culture, concentrating available resources on re-housing homeless people successfully, rather than investigating whether they can be rationed out of the system"
(Scottish Council for Single Homeless, 2006)

1.5 However, an earlier study commissioned for the Awareness Raising and Best Practice subgroup which explored the views of service providers towards homelessness found more mixed views towards some of the key provisions of the 2003 Act. For example, over half (55%) of providers did not feel that the abolition of priority need was fair, while 61% agreed that 'homeless people who could have avoided becoming homeless should not expect the same degree of choice as others in need of re-housing' (Jardine, L and Bilton, K., 2006). Moreover, nearly three-quarters (72%) of service providers felt that their job would be easier if the public had a better understanding of homelessness.

1.6 To date, there does not appear to have been any large-scale, UK-based research exploring public attitudes towards homelessness. It is thus not clear to what extent service providers' concerns about public understanding of homelessness accurately reflect low levels of public sympathy towards people experiencing homelessness or poor understanding of homelessness as an issue. Given that a key aim of the Awareness Raising and Best Practice subgroup is to disseminate accurate information and dispel myths about homelessness, it is important that its future strategies are based on a clear understanding of how homelessness is currently viewed by people in Scotland. In this report, we explore general levels of 'sympathy' towards homeless people as well as the extent to which the Scottish public subscribe to popular 'myths' or misconceptions about homelessness in order to inform this work.

Report structure

1.7 The report is structured as follows:

• Introduction: in the remainder of this introductory chapter, we discuss some difficulties associated with defining homelessness and talking about 'homeless people' and introduce our data set.
• Chapter Two: key findings on experience and awareness of homelessness are summarised, focusing on which groups of people are most likely to have come across people they think are homeless on a regular basis, as well as which groups are most likely to have more personal experience of homelessness.
• Chapter Three: explores general attitudes to homeless people and looks at which groups of people in Scotland are most likely to hold 'sympathetic' and 'unsympathetic' attitudes.
• Chapter Four: considers the extent of belief in various factual and 'moral' 'myths' about homeless people - for example, that most homeless people sleep rough outside, that most people end up being homeless simply because they drink too much, or that most homeless people use hard drugs.
• Chapters Five and Six: attitudes towards two of the cornerstones of the Scottish Government's homelessness reforms - priority need and intentionality are considered. The extent to which the public makes distinctions between different groups of homeless people based on their individual characteristics or the reasons they have become homeless when thinking about who ought to get help finding a new home are explored.
• Chapter Seven: explores respondents' attitudes to homelessness in their own local area, examining beliefs about whether homeless people cause problems, their reactions to the idea of homeless people being re-housed near to them, and their attitudes to homeless people being housed before other local people on the waiting list.
• Chapter Eight: the report conclusions are outlined and discussion of possible implications for policy and further research.

Defining homelessness and talking about 'homeless people'

1.8 The detailed definition of 'homelessness' included in the Homelessness Task Force's final report is included as Annex A of this report. Their definition incorporates households living in unsuitable or insecure accommodation as well as those who are roofless (those without shelter of any kind) or houseless (those living in temporary or emergency accommodation). It is important to note in reading this report that respondents to our survey were not provided with this, or any other detailed definition of 'homelessness' at the outset ⁴. This was in part because the definition is multi-faceted and would have been difficult to convey in the context of a survey interview. However, we are also primarily interested in people's opinions of homelessness, regardless of whether these opinions are informed by an accurate understanding of the kinds of situations this term can cover. As such, providing a definition at the start of the interview might have been leading and could have altered people's responses to the rest of the survey.

1.9 A key aim of this report is to explore the extent to which people hold negative views of people experiencing the types of severe housing need covered by the Homelessness Task Force's report. There is an argument that the terminology used to describe this group of people can itself add to the stigma they experience. On one view, the term 'homeless people' itself is potentially misleading: since individuals can move in and out of periods of homelessness at different points in their lives, it is argued that it is unhelpful to label an individual as 'a homeless person'. It is also suggested that other people might view people experiencing homelessness less negatively if they were simply described as another group in (severe) housing need. For these reasons, some suggest that the term 'people experiencing homelessness' is preferable to 'homeless people'.

1.10 In this report, however, we have decided to use the terms 'homeless people' and 'people experiencing homelessness' interchangeably to describe people affected by the types of severe housing need described in the Task Force's report. While we recognise that terminology does matter and can potentially influence people's perceptions of a group, we felt that the term 'people experiencing homelessness' was not likely to be clearly understood by the majority of the Scottish public. Our questionnaire, therefore, referred to 'homeless people' and as such, we do not feel it would be appropriate to avoid using this term altogether. In general, when we talk about our data, which is based on questions about 'homeless people', we use this term. However, in our broader discussions of homelessness we use the term 'people experiencing homelessness' in recognition of the fact that this may be a more appropriate and less stigmatising description of this group.

The data

1.11 Our data come from the Scottish Social Attitudes ( SSA) survey, conducted by the Scottish Centre for Social Research. SSA is an independent survey that aims to provide high quality survey data on a wide range of social and political attitudes in order both to inform public policy and to facilitate the academic study of public opinion. This report details the survey's most recent findings based on interviews conducted in 2006. Between August 2006 and early January 2007, a random sample of 1,594 adults aged 18 plus resident in Scotland was interviewed, representing a response rate of between 56% and 58% ⁵. Further technical details about the survey are included in Annex C.

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