Five homeless people went without rooms due to 'big event' in Glasgow

A homelessness charity in Glasgow says people are having issues accessing help at the point of need when there are big events on in the city.

On Tuesday 18 July, five people could not get emergency accommodation from Glasgow City Council because there were no hotel rooms available due to a football game at Ibrox.

Thousands of fans flooded to Glasgow for the clash between Rangers and Newcastle - that, combined with a "higher than usual" number of people presenting as homeless, led to what the local authority is calling a "very unusual" set of circumstances.

'It was a shock for us'

Homeless Project Scotland volunteers were "shocked" to have to send those five people away with sleeping bags to face a night on the streets.

Colin McInnes from the charity said the situation raises questions about whether the current emergency accommodation provision is adequate when the city hosts large events.

He said: "It was a shock for us to deliver that news.

"The people who needed accommodation were rather shocked by it too, although some weren't surprised and felt it was back to the old days.

"Us, as a charity, feel that we now have to look at other options for when the Council tell us this.

"We need to start thinking about what what more we can do to assist people when this situation arises, because no one should be left without a roof over their head."

'Unusual set of circumstances'

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “This was a very unusual set of circumstances and thankfully one that doesn’t happen very often.

“The combination of a big event taking place in the city and a higher than normal number of people presenting as homeless, meant that there was no hotel rooms in the city available to spot purchase.

“This is not an ideal situation but we can confirm that we did manage to accommodate high priority cases and the Simon Community Street Team were alerted to check in on those not accommodated with a follow up carried out the next day by HSCP staff.

“Our staff will continue to work with partners across the city to help accommodate our most vulnerable citizens.”

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