16th October 2026 – Glasgow rough sleeping count

Background

Our Glasgow Street Team is out 7-days a week, working from 7am through to 11pm, they engage and connect with people experiencing, or at risk of, rough sleeping, to find solutions. 

Building trust and relationships is key to everything we do at Simon Community Scotland. Our Street Team are easily identifiable in their Simon Community jackets and with their purple rucksacks. We are known faces in and around Glasgow city centre. Through September, our team prevented 86 people from rough sleeping, working with partners to support them into accommodation. 

Anyone living, working or socialising in Glasgow city centre will have seen why our Street Team and Access Hub (on the corner of Brown and Argyle Streets) are needed now more than ever. Our Hub provided 2,024 supports through September

Rough sleeping and begging

Rough sleeping can vary from person to person, depending on circumstances. For some people, it can be a short term crisis , 1 or 2 nights, for others it can be much longer term and sustained crisis, most often worsened by significant mental health problems.

Our team works on building relationships to keep people as safe and supported as possible, and to help people into accommodation.

On a daily basis, our team connects with around 50 people who are begging on the streets of Glasgow. We always check and we know that not all people who are begging are rough sleeping and not all the people who are rough sleeping are begging. 

While the majority of people who are rough sleeping are seeking accommodation, our team also has 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 continues 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.  We never give up or lose hope.

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

Rough Sleeping Count Glasgow – Friday 15th October – 1am to 4am

Organising the Count
12 staff from SCS and 21 volunteers from a variety of partnerships across the city took part in this year’s count. Volunteers were made up of support from 8 partner agencies including: HSCP – Homeless Casework, HSCP – Housing First, The Invisibles, Police Scotland, Glasgow City Mission, Shelter Scotland, Help The Homeless, Turning Point Scotland

Weather
The weather was wet with a temperature of 8 degrees.

All staff and volunteers received a Health & Safety briefing and were provided with emergency contact numbers and split into groups. 2 staff members stayed in the office with the teams calling in every 30 minutes to provide updates on their whereabouts, what streets/areas had been covered and recording any findings. All teams had one staff member trained in Naloxone and as such, every team had a kit with them, they were also provided with a torch and map of areas to cover.

Number of rough sleepers identified
During the course of the count we identified 33 people rough sleeping in the city. As in previous counts, there was evidence of some begging activity where sleeping bags and mats were stored for the following day. Some injecting sites were also identified for teams to follow up.

Accuracy of Count
There is always the likelihood 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.

Help

If you need help, or if see someone who might need our support, please;

CALL our 24-helpline on 0800 027 7466

Or

DIRECT/VISIT – Our Glasgow Access Hub (open 7-days a week, 9am-5pm (10am on a Wednesday) at 74-80 Brown Street, Glasgow, G2 8PD