December 2025 – Glasgow rough sleepers count

A blog report by Service Lead Elaine Barrett on our latest through the night rough sleeping count

 

Rough Sleeping Count Glasgow

Friday 6th December 2024 – 12 midnight until 3am

Background

Our Glasgow Street Team is out 7-days a week, working from 7am through to 11pm, they connect with people to find solutions. 

In w/c 25th November, our Street Team prevented 13 people from rough sleeping, working with partners to support them into accommodation. 

On a daily basis, our team connects with around 50 people a day who are begging on the streets of Glasgow. Not all people who are begging are rough sleeping and not all the people who are rough sleeping are begging. 

We are proud to work with a number of partners (see below) to collaborate and coordinate our efforts to help people on the streets to be as safe as possible and to be connected to health, housing, legal and welfare services.

We are also proud to include volunteers on our Street Team and our Street Cycles team is 100% reliant on volunteers giving their time, energy and skills to help us reach people outside the city centre. We thank them all for their exceptional support.

While the majority of people who are rough sleeping are seeking accommodation, our team also have to consider each person on an individual basis. The trauma that some people have experienced can mean that they don’t feel able, or safe, to come inside and our team continue to connect and support them to be safe while being ready to get them into a safe place when the time is right and the opportunity is right for the person. 

Meeting people where they are at, connecting, building trust and relationships is what we are all about. 

 

Overnight count

We conduct an overnight count at least twice a year, just to confirm that we are reaching everyone and that our shared intelligence is up to date. It takes knowledge and careful planning. We ensure that people with lived and living experience are involved to ensure that, along with our street team and partners knowledge, we are informed about; where we search, how to respect people’s privacy and most importantly – what not to do

Organising the Count

16 staff from SCS and 23 volunteers from a variety of partnerships across the city took part in our latest rough sleepers count. Volunteers were made up of support from 11  partner agencies including: HSPC – Homeless Casework, HSPC – Housing First, Glasgow City Mission, Police Scotland, Glasgow City Council – Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability, Help the Homeless, The Marie Trust, Lodging House Mission, Turning Point Scotland, The Invisibles and Shelter Scotland.

Number of rough sleepers identified

During the course of the count we identified 27 people rough sleeping in the city. Which is line with  line with figures our Glasgow Street Team have been reporting. We welcome the support of all partnership agencies that were able to join us. Thank you so much for your time, friendship and support.

As in previous counts, there was evidence of some begging activity where sleeping bags and mats were stored for the following day. 

We engage regularly with local police and HSCP Neighbourhoods and Sustainability and local housing associations to discuss rough sleeping in their areas, this let’s us understand if we need to target areas outwith the city centre.

Accuracy of Count

There is always a small chance, that despite all of the shared intelligence, that we would not find everyone as some people make great efforts to be undetected. Similarly, there is a possibility that people might be in more remote locations outside the city centre, some of which may be in parks and cemeteries, although we have had no reported sightings from across our city wide network.

Simon Community Scotland – Glasgow city centre support

Our Glasgow Street Team work 7-days per week from 7am-11pm, building relationships and trust with people who are rough sleeping, or at risk of rough sleeping in the city. This includes people who regularly beg in Glasgow and people who are staying in B&Bs, hostels and hotels in the city centre.

Our Access Hub, located at  74-80 Brown Street, Glasgow, G2 8PD,  is open 7-days a week from 9am-5pm (10am start on Wednesday for staff training) and is a safe place, providing information, care, advice and support.

Our Glasgow Helpline 0800 027 7466 is available 24-hours a day for people to access information, or for members of the public to alert us to people they are concerned about.

What we are doing and how you can help

Every day, we are working extremely hard to support hundreds of people who are homeless in Glasgow. 

We have a wide support network across the city, including; our Access Hub on the corner of Brown Street and Argyle Street (open 7-days), our new Connect Hub for women experiencing homelessness, our 24-hour helpline, our Street Team, 5 supported accommodation services, our pioneering Managed Alcohol Programme, an outreach programme and our Safe in Scotland programme. 

The vast majority of people who are homeless in Glasgow have some form of shelter through temporary accommodations, like bed and breakfasts, hostels, or sofa surfing with friends.

Rough sleeping is the extreme form of homelessness and people face significant risks to their physical and mental health due to exposure to weather, violence, and the lack of access to medical care or sanitation.

Root Causes: The causes of rough sleeping often overlap with other forms of homelessness, including poverty, unemployment, mental illness, substance abuse, and systemic issues like lack of affordable housing or support services.

Our primary aim is to get anyone at risk of rough sleeping into somewhere safe and dry. That is our ultimate aim. 

Sadly, the reality is that we cannot always do that. So we have to keep people as safe and informed as we possibly can.

Our Street Team engage with people on the streets of Glasgow on a daily basis; performing wellbeing checks, working to build trust, reduce the risk of harm and trying to link people into the support they need. If possible, we get people along to our Access Hub for warmth and extra support. 

Provisions, jackets, clothes and sleeping bags are essential items that we are handing out every day. Due to the winter (often horrendous) weather, we are regularly having to hand out new, dry sleeping bags. 

If you are in a position to donate to our safe places and support for people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping, then please visit our website www.simonscotland.org or head straight to our safe places, support and hope appeal.

By Elaine Barrett, Service Lead, RSVP Street Team