Under consideration PE2284: Criminalise the denial of emergency accommodation and statutory homelessness rights in Scotland
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to amend the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 and the relevant Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act to make the intentional denial of statutory emergency accommodation, bureaucratic sabotage, and deceptive refusal techniques (commonly known as "gatekeeping" or "gaslighting" applicants) a specific criminal offence. This legislation must introduce personal criminal liability and mandatory prison sentences for both senior council officials who direct these policies and individual housing officers who execute them.
Background information
Local Authorities in Scotland mass-sabotage the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 by systemically denying vulnerable people their statutory right to emergency accommodation. Housing officers routinely engage in deceptive gatekeeping, falsely telling applicants they are not homeless if they have a non-viable address or tenancy.
Because this is currently treated as an administrative failure rather than a crime, there are no deterrents. Judicial Review only forces the council to resolve individual cases, while systemic failure continues. This gross, state-sanctioned negligence directly leads to severe psychological trauma, destitution, and rough sleeping.
Administrative and financial penalties fail, as they only drain the public purse further. The only way to stop this gross systemic human rights violation is through the criminalisation of these actions. If a public official intentionally denies life-saving accommodation, it must be treated as a serious crime punishable by imprisonment.
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