Two leases for West End buildings are set to be agreed to provide rooms for homeless people as part of efforts to ease the city’s housing emergency.
Glasgow City Council is planning to continue renting accommodation at Queen Margaret Drive — which can house 34 people — for another 10 years due to rising homelessness.
It has also lined up a lease for a Wilton Street townhouse, which can support 13 people. Officials hope the two deals will help the council reduce its reliance on unsuitable B&Bs as temporary accommodation.
The use of “stop gap” B&Bs and hotels breaches the unsuitable accommodation order and the council needs to find “more appropriate” accommodation for “vulnerable households”.
Rent payments to Danobe Securities Ltd for the Queen Margaret Drive property would rise from just under £148,000 per year to £165,000, excluding VAT, under the new deal, which will go before councillors for approval next week.
At Wilton Street, the proposed 10-year agreement would see the council pay £65,000 per year, excluding VAT, to lease the building, which is owned by Queens Cross Housing Association.
Glasgow City Council has had a lease for the Queen Margaret Drive tenement building since 1993, when it was initially sub-let to Glasgow Women’s Aid. The current lease ends next month.
It can accommodate 34 people in single occupancy, with a communal kitchen and bathroom facilities. The Wilton Street house has a mix of rooms with ensuites and others with shared bathrooms as well as a communal kitchen.
In a report to councillors, officials say the city has faced an “increase in demand for homelessness services, including temporary accommodation” since the UK Government sped up the asylum decision making process in June 2023 to reduce the backlog of asylum claimants.
Glasgow declared a housing emergency in November 2023 due to the “unprecedented increase in demand for homelessness assistance”.
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Officials have reported Glasgow receives “the largest number of homelessness applications in Scotland, disproportionate to the size of its population” — with 17.2% of applications against 11.4% of Scotland’s population.
The number of homeless households requesting support rose from 9,299 in 2017/18 to 12,107 in 2022/23 and hit 13,729 in 2023/24. The report adds the number of households in B&Bs was 742 in June 2023 compared to 1,473 at present.
“Consequently the council is facing significant legal pressure in relation to its reliance on B&B accommodation,” the report states. Both leases would have a break option after five years.
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