Positive in Housing’s 25th Annual Impact Report was launched today at its AGM via Zoom amongst the charity’s member organisations from Scottish housing associations, BME organisations, Refugee groups and homelessness organisations, trade unions as well as service users and volunteers involved with the charity.
2020 will be remembered for generations – a global pandemic, tragic death toll and unprecedented lockdown restrictions. 2020 will also be remembered for the Black Lives Matter movement for justice and against racism.
In 2019-20, Positive Action in Housing enabled 5,185 direct beneficiaries (3,318 men and women, 1,852 children) to overcome crises and build new lives.
Our Room for Refugees Network arranged 43,529 nights of shelter, thanks to our volunteer hosts, and enabled 221 destitute or homeless families, men, women and unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people, to progress their legal status and find new hope. Since 2015, the Network has saved the government and charities over £10M in the cost of shelter.
Our Money Skills and New Migrants Action Projects combined raised over £1.3M in state entitlements for our service users – money that went back into the Scottish economy.
Our Lifeline Service provided proactive casework or emergency support to 1,440 destitute refugees or asylum seeker households.
Our Emergency Relief Fund distributed hundreds of crisis grants totalling £59,405. Our Winter Destitution Surgery alone helped 252 adults and 212 children, providing practical help and crisis grants to help people get through the harsh winter months.
Through determined campaigning and casework, we continued to push back against the “hostile environment” and uphold people’s basic human rights.
In Glasgow, the biggest asylum population of any U.K. city, there is an ongoing humanitarian crisis around asylum seekers’ universal human right to housing and an adequate standard of living.
With the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions, we have been running a skeleton team in our office plus outdoor surgeries and providing practical help with volunteers through our exciting new emergency relief project, Humans of Glasgow. Zoom and working from home are current necessities, but we must also ensure we’re reaching the most needy and vulnerable. Helping people while overcoming digital and language barriers is our biggest challenge.
Looking ahead, we anticipate increased demand in difficult and uncertain times. The “hostile environment” heralds continued ill treatment of people of colour and those of non-“British” heritage. The far right is emboldened by the increasingly normalised, anti-immigrant rhetoric of some media and politicians. With the continuing rise in poverty, a lack of decent housing and the fallout of Brexit, supporting anti-racist movements is essential and our role in the community has never been more important. We remain committed to enabling our fellow human beings to rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.
It has been a strong financial year, but we know there are challenging times ahead and we remained determined and resilient. Thanks to everyone who has sent regular donations, messages of support and volunteered. Your contributions really do make a difference in people’s lives.