£10m to help people worst affected by pandemic to avoid eviction
Councils have been given £10 million to provide grants to tenants who have fallen behind on their rent as a result of the pandemic and are at risk of eviction.
The grants will help tenants who are struggling financially as a direct result of the pandemic, allowing them to reduce or pay off their rent arrears. They will be available to tenants in both the private and social rented sectors.
This is part of a package of measures available to local authorities to prevent homelessness, alongside Discretionary Housing Payments and advice on maximising income. The grants also come on top of the Scottish Government’s £10 million Tenant Hardship Loan Fund.
Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “We have been doing all we can to support tenants who are struggling as a result of the pandemic, and this latest funding takes our total housing support to almost £39 million.
“These grants will support tenants and landlords who are willing to work together to address rent arrears and agree a repayment plan to ensure the tenant is able to avoid eviction.
“Councils have substantial experience in supporting people who have fallen behind on their rent, and are therefore well placed to work with both tenants and landlords in making use of this grant fund. Anyone who has been financially impacted by the pandemic and needs help to avoid eviction should contact their local authority housing department to discuss their circumstances.”
Councillor Kelly Parry, COSLA Community Wellbeing spokesperson, said: “We are working closely with the Scottish Government to support tenants through the grant fund.
“The pandemic has resulted in some facing a significant loss of income which has resulted in a proportion of these developing rent arrears. The fund is limited and therefore will be targeted at those most at risk of eviction, but will allow local authorities, tenants and landlords to work together to stay in their homes and prevent homelessness.
“Councils have a lead role in supporting a fair and inclusive recovery. Enabling people to sustain their tenancies helps maintain their important community connections.”
Nearly £1.5million will be allocated to Edinburgh to help those in social and private tenancies at risk of becoming homeless.
This share of the Scottish Government’s new £10m Tenant Hardship Grant Fund will further aid the City of Edinburgh Council in preventing evictions as a result of COVID-19 related rent arrears.
The aim of the fund is to provide an additional tool for the Council to help save tenancies, create sustainable housing solutions for individuals and prevent homelessness, alongside its other initiatives in place.
This includes the Council’s Private Rented Service (PRS) Team, which looks to help private renters keep their existing tenancy or to move to either a new private or mid-market rent secure tenancy, and the ‘multi-disciplinary response’ team which helps Council tenants who are struggling to maintain their tenancy or falling into rent arrears.
In addition Edinburgh Help to Rent, which is a service the Council contracts Crisis to deliver, provides rent deposit guarantee bonds.
Under Scottish Government guidelines, local authorities have to allocate the Tenant Hardship Grant Fund by the end of this financial year (March 2022). The Council is currently assessing eligibility criteria in order to support those most at risk.
Councillor Kate Campbell, Convener of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee said: “This money from the Scottish Government comes at a critical time. Between the cut in Universal Credit, the national insurance increase, the end of furlough, rocketing household fuel bills due to the energy crisis, and now the fuel crisis – households are being hit hard.
“We will use this money to help people who have fallen into rent arrears during the pandemic, to help prevent evictions, homelessness and the burden of debt being placed on vulnerable households. This is a lifeline that will help people to stay in their own homes.
“Our Private Rented Sector Team has stopped 427 households from becoming homeless in the last 18 months, while our multi-disciplinary response team is successfully supporting our council tenants who’ve fallen into arrears. This funding from the Scottish Government means we can do even more to prevent families and households becoming homeless.”
Councillor Mandy Watt, Vice Convener of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee said: “The work being done by the Council and in collaboration with partner organisations like Crisis has already made a big difference to preventing people from becoming homeless. But there is still more that needs to be done with around 6,000 people currently homeless in our Capital.
“As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, it could become even more difficult to find suitable accommodation for everybody who needs it. So the work of our prevention teams will be more important than ever.
“We will be working to identify those most at risk without delay because many people are already in financial difficulty and it’s likely to get worse as winter weather and rising energy prices put more strain on household budgets.”
Nina Ballantyne, Citizens Advice Scotland Social Justice spokesperson, said: “The Citizens Advice network saw a real spike in demand for housing-related advice during the pandemic. Our analysis suggests almost 300,000 people in Scotland missed a housing payment last year because they ran out of money before pay day.
“We called for more support for tenants and are delighted to see this fund launch – we’d now encourage people to seek advice on what support is right for them and make use of all the options available.”
Local advice is available from Granton Information Centre. Telephone 0131 552 0458, 0131 551 2459 or email info@gic.org.uk
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