A hidden population of homeless women are being exposed to daily dangers of violence and oppression.
Campaigners claim that Scotland’s housing crisis has created a large cohort of mums who are choosing to stay with violent partners to enable then to hold on to their children.
Other women are choosing to sleep on sofas and some on pavements instead of accepting rooms in “hell-hole” hotels, where they have been exposed to the risk of further violence and sexual assault.
Laura Jones, of the Scottish Tenants’ Organisation, said recent months have brought an alarming rise in reports of fear and violence by women who find themselves homeless.
Recent figures showed that, in Glasgow, 108 families were living in B and Bs or hotels, the use of which is strictly limited by law.
Many of these establishments have become associated with hellish conditions.
The account by Jones chimes with the findings of housing charity Shelter, which claims many women are finding it impossible to find secure and safe accommodation.
Jones said: “We’ve now got 108 families with children in these hell-hole hotels, which is a huge increase from earlier months.
“The law is being broken every day by Glasgow City Council and people are not being given what they have a legal right to.
“More and more of those caught up in homelessness are women, often with children and fleeing domestic violence.”
Jones said the dire state of affairs is witnessed nightly at the Homeless Project Scotland emergency shelter, which is oversubscribed yet faces possible closure over a planning row,
She said: “We have a distressing situation where the emergency and temporary accommodation being offered to women is so dangerous and unsuitable that they would rather sleep on the street or seek a mattress at the night shelter run by Homeless Network Scotland.
“It seems very strange that such a facility might be shut down and I would most certainly urge against that.
“The facility has lots of support on site and it has a dedicated women’s room, which is essential.”
Jones said she has spoken personally to several women who have been terrified after spending time at hotels now designated for the homeless – like the Queen’s Park Hotel, where several people have died of overdoses.
She said: “These hotels have generated so many horror stories.
“There’s rooms with no locks and there’s mould and damp and there’s poor security at the buildings, so we have drug pushers can let themselves into the building.
“We have been made aware of men just pushing their way into women’s rooms and attacking them. That in itself is hard to believe.
“We met with a couple of women a couple of weeks ago who were choosing to sleep rough rather than actually go and present homeless, because they were trying to avoid being in a hotel.
“We have had dealings with women fleeing violent domestic situations and some with kids, who know they will be taken off them if they tell the council they have slept in a shelter or on the street.
“That has meant kids ending up back with abusive fathers or inappropriate family members because they have a home and the mother doesn’t.”
Jones said many of these experiences aren’t captured in any homeless figures.
She said: ” There are more and more women who are at breaking point, experiencing family breakdown and often violence.
“I’m becoming used to speaking to women who are at their wits’ end, who burst into tears and they will start telling you about their childhood trauma and perhaps bad experience with men.
“These people need somewhere safe, secure, with privacy and support.
“We need halfway houses for women and children, where women can avoid being put into these hotels.”
A report in October by Shelter Scotland and Engender showed the disproportionate impact of the housing emergency on women, and the additional barriers they face in accessing safe, secure, affordable, housing.
The report showed that higher rates of poverty among women and their greater reliance on social security benefits restricts their access to housing.
It also sets out that homelessness services in Scotland are often unequipped to respond to women’s specific needs, particularly those fleeing domestic abuse.
The report recommended increasing the supply of social housing and establishing a ‘fund to leave’ for women experiencing domestic abuse.
Authors also advocated more investment to reveal those who are currently hidden in the statistics.
Shelter Scotland Director, Alison Watson, said: “Childcaring responsibilities are also far more likely to fall to women, so growing child homelessness will of course have a hugely disproportionate impact on women in Scotland.
“Scotland’s housing emergency is devastating the lives of women every day.”
The Daily Record has championed calls for proper commitment to housing. Scotland has more than 40,000 homeless people and more than 10,000 kids living in shoddy temporary homes.
Cuts to the Scottish Government’s housing budget exacerbated problems caused by inflation and population shifts, notably an spike in asylum seekers being directed to the city.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health and Social Care Partnership said they are pressing hard for extra funding from the Scottish and UK governments to help deal with a flood od people coming to the city.
The spokeswoman said: “We remain in a very unfortunate situation and certainly not one we wish anyone to be in.
“It is well documented that the housing system in Glasgow is experiencing extreme pressure, but we work hard to prioritise families with children and get them into permanent accommodation as quickly as possible, with 92% currently being accommodated in furnished accommodation in the community.
“We are still dealing with increasing numbers of people coming to Glasgow to access our services and, in turn, increasing numbers of people being accommodated in unsuitable accommodation.
“The reality is demand far outstrips availability which means people – including children – are spending longer in emergency and temporary accommodation than any of us would want.
“The extended use of bed and breakfast accommodation is being driven by the rapid increase in demand for homeless assistance.
“We continue to work with partners to widen our use of emergency accommodation as an alternative to bed and breakfast type accommodation.
“The situation is far from acceptable, and we continue to push both governments for additional resource.”
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