PKC to end priority decisions on homelessness

Oct 4 2011 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

‘PRIORITY NEED’ for homelessness applications is being phased out by Perth and Kinross Council, a conference in Perth has heard.

The Perth and Kinross Homelessness Strategy Conference, held at the Perth and Kinross Society for the Blind premises in New Row, included speakers from national housing charity Shelter, the Scottish Government, and PKC.

The council’s housing and health convener Peter Barrett welcomed the move towards a statutory re-housing duty to all unintentionally homeless people.

“People become homeless for a wide variety of reasons,” he declared.

“Homelessness can affect anyone, from any walk of life and it’s vital that we are in a position to help as many of them as we can.

“The Homelessness Strategy is allowing us to do that. Today’s conference was an excellent way of discussing the future of this important work with our partner agencies.

“As a result of our hard work we now find ourselves in the position where we will meet the 2012 national target ahead of time.”