Charity calls for stricter controls on housing as Glasgow student as declared homeless

A homelessness charity has called for stricter controls on accommodation as a Glasgow students have been left without homes in the city.

This comes as students like Comfort Mensah, who moved to Glasgow last September to study international relations, shared her struggles with securing accommodation as Social Bite, a homelessness charity, warned of a growing shortage in student housing.

The charity’s founder, Josh Littlejohn MBE, has urged authorities to provide more support for students after a report revealed a shortfall of over 25,000 student bed spaces across Scotland.

Comfort, a graduate in planning and development from Christian Service University in Ghana, said she was left relying on the generosity of a local family she connected with through her church in Glasgow’s East End.

“I had a roof over my head, but I didn’t have a home–somewhere to go back that was my own,” Scottish Housing News reported.

With limited financial support, Comfort juggled her studies which searching for both employment and housing.

Arriving with only £500, Comfort applied for hundreds of jobs without success, facing the possibility of rough sleeping as winter approached.

“It was incredibly hard,” she admitted. “I put on a positive face, but inside I was falling apart. I had nowhere to call my own, and the uncertainty was overwhelming.”

According to Social Bite’s Jobs First programme, Comfort eventually secured part-time work at a Harvester restaurant in January, nearly four months after her arrival.

However, although her student visa restricts her to 20 hours of work per week, she managed to save enough to afford a private room, leading to a significant improvement in her academic performance, which she says was “transformational.”

She expressed relief, saying: “I never sleep well, but that first night I fell asleep before 8pm and slept right through to 8am –I’d never slept like it. Maybe this is how it is to be at peace.”

A recent report co-authored by the University of Glasgow, the University of Stirling, and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland identified a “severe” shortage of student housing in major cities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has also reported that one in ten students experienced homelessness in the past year, with over 20 per cent of international students in Scotland affected.

Josh from Social Bite further emphasised that Comfort’s experience is not a one off, with him pointing out that thousands of students across Scotland are facing similar challenges. He called for rent controls on purpose-built student accommodation, year-round financial support for at-risk students, and expanded guarantor services to ease the burden on low-income and international students. He also noted that limited work rights for international students make it even harder for them to cover living expenses, especially in the urgent housing crisis we’re in.

As part of its efforts to address the crisis, Social Bite has partnered with coffee supplier Matthew Algie to open cafes in universities and colleges across the UK. A portion of the cafes’ profits will be directed toward Social Bite’s ongoing work to end homelessness.

Raj Juneja, Head of Education at Matthew Algie, said: “We have a number of Social Bite cafes planned at educational institutions across Scotland and the UK. This initiative aims to raise awareness while generating essential funds for the cause of tackling homelessness.”

Featured image via Instagram

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