We call on the Scottish Government to better fund and reform homeless services in Scotland so that women are better protected from predatory sexual assault and sexual exploitation. Increasing numbers of homeless women are being placed in squalid and unsuitable hotel/bed and breakfast accommodation where there is a ratio of 14 men to every woman, resulting in increasing physical and sexual attacks against women.

Testimony from women who stayed in the hotels (TW rape)

1: “In the first hotel I was put in, a man posed as a member of staff, so I let him in. He said he had teabags and sugar for me, and could he check my toilet was working. I let him in. He raped me and left.”

2: “Over the past months, I’ve stayed in three separate hostels. I have been threatened, assaulted, and robbed. I’ve had no sense of security or safety. 

“There was literally no security keeping men away from women. Pimps hang around outside the front door at night and grab you while you leave or enter the building. The men prayed on the women like we were meat. I saw a girl giving head to a fat old man on my second day there, up the stairs. She was crying.

Addicts are bribed into sex. I saw it in all three hostels I stayed in. We need more women-only shelters. The women in these hostels are free game. It’s disgusting.

You could be my worst enemy and I’d still take you in to avoid that.”

We must prioritize getting women and children out of the hotels. The better funding and reform of temporary homeless accommodation for women must include creating more halfway single-sex accommodation that protects and meets the specific needs of women with the objective of rapidly placing them in permanent social housing.

Women in Scotland are being ignored in the current housing and homeless emergency and this must change. We believe this petition can draw attention to their plight and result in positive change in policy to help homeless women in Scotland.

This petition has also been lodged with the Scottish Government by the Scottish Tenants Organisation.