Investigation finds migrants sleeping in cars outside Homeless hostels in Edinburgh

As many as 50 are living in ­vehicles in the grounds of ­Edinburgh’s Almond Lodge House Hotel. Some, housed in the two-star hotel in the pandemic, are in a car park after being told to leave after financial ­support for them ran out. Many missed post-Brexit ­deadlines and have been deemed ineligible for support by the UK Government. More

No one should be left homeless, no matter where they’re from. EU nationals are almost twice as likely to experience homelessness as the general population and almost three times as likely to experience rough sleeping. But many EU citizens living here struggle to access the system of housing, homelessness or employment support they need when something like a job loss hits, due to rules limiting who can get help. Even Europeans who've lived and worked in Britain for many years can face extra barriers to getting help if they become homeless. No amount of arguing about political ideology will help this crisis. It doesn’t put a roof over the heads of those struggling to survive. Yet here in 2023, we have people left sleeping in cars and on the streets right outside the doors of our capital city’s homeless hostels. The Scottish Government must fund a tailored employment and housing support package for EU citizens who are facing homelessness and who experience barriers to accessing the usual avenues of support. This support must include emergency accommodation. Putting this support in place now will lead to longer-term benefits for all of us; when people have a home, they can think about a future, education, work and paying taxes as equals—helping people to create a better life for themselves, their children and the rest of us. You can’t plan a future while being homeless. We need to treat this as an emergency and treat those affected like human beings instead of political footballs.

(Our Migrants Rights Work with members of the Roma community is led up by Iain Chisholm. For more information, contact home (at) positiveactionh.org).