More than 500 people were helped by the Overnight Welcome Centre for homeless people in Glasgow over the winter months.

The centre, which has replaced the old winter night shelter where dozens of people slept on mattresses on the floor, sourced emergency accommodation for 534 people between December 1 and March 31.

As well as finding somewhere for people to stay that night, the centre, run by Glasgow City Mission, worked the following morning, to get people out of the emergency accommodation including hotels and into more settled accommodation.

Glasgow Times:

The report on the Overnight Welcome Centre for winter 2022/23 showed it had 534 unique guests and 1528 presentations.

READ NEXT: More social housing is the answer to Glasgow's homelessness crisis

It stated: “Of these 534 guests, 280 were accommodated immediately in partnership with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP).

“We also provided 598 emergency beds for our guests who were not eligible for assistance through the HSCP.

“On 258 occasions the OWC was a safe place for our guests to wait if they did not require a bed, and 95% of our guests moved onto a positive outcome.”

The OWC is a joint operation, delivered by the City Mission but with support from various organisations including the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, Simon Community Scotland, Shelter Scotland, The Scottish Refugee Council, Govan Community Project and British Red Cross.

Not all people seeking help were homeless, some had found themselves stranded in Glasgow.

READ NEXT:Council bill for hotels in Glasgow for homeless people set to double

Most were British, a number which has increased in recent years but more than one in four were from other countries, which is expected to rise with changes to asylum laws.

The report stated: “There were occasions when guests would remain in the building throughout the night, for example, to catch the first bus or train home.”

It added: “73% of guests were British, which is an increase from the previous two years. The remaining 27% of guests were internationals.

“However, staff spent more time working with internationals due to the complexity of their cases, particularly when they had no recourse to public funds.”

Glasgow Times:

The team dealt with 135 guests in that situation, coming from 60 different countries.

Glasgow City Mission said: “The landscape of rough sleeping in Glasgow has changed dramatically over the past three years.

“On average, we are still seeing numbers of rough-sleeping below ten.

“However, even with low numbers there are people who find themselves in desperate need each night and thus some model of the OWC was essential.”