A new shelter has has opened its doors in the capital to offer 'food and sleeping facilities, immediate housing advice and wellbeing support' to anyone facing homelessness in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh City Council has teamed up with the Bethany Christian Trust and Social Bite to provide up to 65 self-contained rooms every night in the city's new Welcome Centre until 3 May 2021.
Since the start of the pandemic, the council has been moving homeless people out of shared accommodation and into B&Bs to allow them to be able to safely self-isolate.
Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener councillor, Kate Campbell, said: "Throughout this pandemic our priority has been making sure no one has to sleep rough and that we have good quality accommodation available for anyone who needs it.
"This means working together as a city and it’s welcome that the Council, the Scottish Government and third sector partners are doing just that. It’s emblematic of how we’ve been working since March, and shows how much we can achieve when we work together.
The Welcome Centre is a place where urgent help can be provided immediately, but beyond that critical point, partners will be on hand to provide coordinated health and housing support and help people take steps to resolve their homelessness over the longer term.
"We know from the work we’ve done already that building trust immediately and taking services to people who need them, rather than asking them to come to us to ask for help, has a positive, lasting impact. It’s incredibly important in building relationships that are helping people to move on from rough sleeping.
"All steps are being taken to protect against Covid-19 and I want to pass my thanks to Bethany, the incredible efforts of our housing officers and our partners for working together on this.
"Just last month we put a five-year plan in place to further strengthen our support and we remain committed to doing all that we can to prevent and tackle homelessness. The lessons learned during the pandemic will be embedded long term so that we are taking every possible action to end rough sleeping in our city."
