The Scottish Parliament is in recess from 28 June to 31 August. We will respond to petitions as soon as we can.
If your petition is seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change, we would advise you to contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly. Please be aware that the public petitions process is a thorough and often lengthy process and is not designed to respond to emergencies.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Team
Under consideration PE2147: Create more women-only homeless accommodation that protects and meets the specific needs of women
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to reform homeless services in Scotland and ensure services protect women from sexual assault and exploitation by increasing funding and supporting the creation of more women-only homeless accommodation.
Background information
Increasing numbers of women are placed in unsuitable hotel/bed and breakfast accommodation, where there is a ratio of 14 men to 1 woman.
There is a clear lack of safeguarding in emergency temporary accommodation in general, but very little attention has been paid to the specific challenges faced by women who are stuck in the homeless system. Women are particularly at risk in mixed-sex emergency accommodation, and the hotels are notorious, with increased reports of rapes and sexual assaults.
We need secure women-only halfway accommodation that meets the specific needs of women with the objective of rapidly placing them in permanent social housing.
As part of the Glasgow Times “End the Homeless Hotel Shame” campaign, and with official figures suggesting that the number of families living in homeless hotels and B&Bs quadrupled in 2024, we support calls for more emphasis to be placed on the affordable housing supply budget.
718 signatures
This petition is now under consideration
Click here for further information about the consideration of this petition.