40% Rise in People Accessing Homelessness Service

Monday July 17 2023

Bethany Christian Trust has reported a 40% increase in people using its Edinburgh homelessness service last winter.

The report of its Rapid Re-accommodation Welcome Centre for 2022-23 reveals that 1,167 were prevented from sleeping rough on the streets of Edinburgh between October 5 and May 3.

The Rapid Re-accommodation Centre, which operated from the Haymarket Hub Hotel, replaced Bethany’s previous Overnight Care Shelter in 2020. Each person has access to an en-suite room, three meals a day and on-site staff support. Over 300 volunteers, many from Edinburgh’s churches, help to run the service.

The report also states that 39 new people, on average came to the service each week, and 69 people on average accessed it each day. The busiest day saw 92 people arrive. In total, there were 14,564 total accesses to the service – 40% higher than in the previous season. The average stay was 11 days, and over 24,500 meals were provided were provided by 39 different teams of volunteers.

This year, people of 72 nationalities were helped, and the report says that there was a rise in people subject to Immigration Control. There was also an increase in under 20-year-olds.

Read the full report at https://bethanychristiantrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Rapid-Re-accommodation-Welcome-Centre-Report-2022-2023.pdf 

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