Who is being housed — and who is being protected?

Homelessness is not a crime.

People leaving prison are entitled to lawful accommodation. People subject to sex-offender notification requirements cannot simply be made to disappear from society. Stable housing can itself form an important part of managing risk.

But none of that removes the public's right to ask a fundamental question:

When the state places people into emergency and supported accommodation, who makes sure that one vulnerable person is not protected at the expense of another?

SÙIL ALBA is beginning a Scotland-wide investigation into the use of homelessness and supported accommodation operated by The Salvation Army and the public authorities responsible for referrals, commissioning and offender management.

We are not beginning with a predetermined conclusion.

We are beginning with questions.

Why we are investigating

Published information already establishes that some Salvation Army services in Scotland accommodate very different populations.

Eva Burrows 1st Stop Project in Cambuslang advertises emergency accommodation for single males and females aged 15–75, couples, single parents and families with children.

In Dundee, Salvation Army services including Burnside Mill and Strathmore Lodge publish eligibility criteria that can encompass 16- and 17-year-olds alongside adults.

In Glasgow, Wallace of Campsie provides emergency accommodation for adult men, while William Hunter House has published referral routes that include prison services as well as homelessness and council services.

None of those facts proves that a registered sex offender has been accommodated alongside a child.

We have not established that.

And SÙIL ALBA will not turn an unanswered question into a headline pretending that we have.

But the question warrants investigation.

The public-protection test

Scotland has an established public-protection system for registered sex offenders. MAPPA brings responsible authorities together to assess and manage risk, while the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders addresses the suitability of accommodation.

Scottish guidance recognises that accommodation itself can create risk.

That makes the practical operation of the system legitimate territory for scrutiny.

We want to establish what happens beyond the policy documents.

The questions we will ask

• Who decides whether a particular homeless placement is appropriate?
• What information does a third-sector accommodation provider receive before accepting someone?
• Can the provider refuse a placement?
• What happens when children, teenagers or particularly vulnerable adults are already living at the accommodation?
• Are Environmental Risk Assessments being conducted where required?
• How frequently are proposed addresses rejected?
• Have people been moved because an accommodation arrangement was subsequently considered unsafe?
• Does what happens in practice correspond with what Scotland's public-protection system says should happen?

How we will investigate

Those questions will not be answered through rumour.

SÙIL ALBA intends to examine council records, MAPPA and NASSO documentation, Care Inspectorate reports, procurement and commissioning records, historical service specifications, publicly available court material and archived versions of accommodation policies.

We will seek aggregate information through Freedom of Information legislation where appropriate.

We will approach the relevant councils, public-protection authorities and The Salvation Army for their explanations and give organisations facing serious criticism a proper opportunity to respond before publication.

We will also distinguish between the organisations involved.

A charity operating a building is not necessarily the organisation deciding who is placed there. Property ownership, service operation, council commissioning, homelessness referrals, justice-social-work involvement and MAPPA risk management can sit with different organisations.

Blurring those responsibilities would make the investigation weaker, not stronger.

What we will not do

SÙIL ALBA will not publish the addresses of private individuals, attempt to identify children or vulnerable residents, or treat social-media allegations as proof.

The purpose is not vigilantism.

It is accountability.

Evidence before narrative

There are two possible broad outcomes.

The records may demonstrate that Scotland's safeguards are functioning: high-risk placements are identified, unsuitable accommodation is rejected and vulnerable residents are properly protected.

If that is what the evidence shows, we will report it.

But if documentary evidence demonstrates a material gap between published safeguards and actual practice, the public deserves to know that too.

And if public bodies refuse information, provide contradictory accounts or cannot demonstrate how safeguards operate, those facts may themselves warrant scrutiny — without automatically being characterised as evidence of a cover-up.

Government guidance tells us what the system is supposed to do.

Our investigation will ask what the system actually does.

That distinction matters.

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Published 29 August 2026 · Investigation SA-008 · Status: evidence gathering / FOI preparation / Scotland-wide mapping