SHELTER Scotland campaigners will be in Glasgow city centre to mark their 50th anniversary.

Accompanied by a large red house, the charity campaigners will on Buchanan Street today urging members of the public and local politicians to give their support to the charity’s aims of ensuring there is a safe, secure and affordable home for everyone.

While Shelter Scotland is marking its 50th anniversary, it is not celebrating as the housing and homelessness charity believes it shouldn’t really need to exist. It says Scotland still has a housing crisis and many of the factors that motivated its founders to take action still exist today. Last year it helped more people than ever before – mainly to find and keep a home.

In Glasgow alone last year (2016/17), the team had 3,357 direct approaches for help – 707 who were either homeless or facing homelessness that night. There were also 5,377 homelessness applications, and 2,023 households in temporary accommodation, including 1,705 children.

As part of its 50th activities, Shelter Scotland has already unveiled a partnership with the Glasgow School of Art, whose students have designed its 50th logo, window displays for its network of charity shops across Scotland and is holding a photographic exhibition later in the year. A special one-off screening of ‘I, Daniel Blake’ was also held last week.

Speaking ahead of the campaign day, Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said: “We are still fighting so that, one day, everyone will have a safe, secure and affordable home from where they can settle and build their life. But we need support. I urge members of the public in Glasgow to come along, meet the team and give their support to our work. There is still so much more needs doing in Glasgow and across Scotland to tackle bad housing and homelessness.”

He added: “While good progress has been made over the last 50 years, bad housing and homelessness still blights the lives of many thousands of people in Scotland – robbing them of their health, security and a fair chance in life. That’s why we are not celebrating our 50th – we shouldn’t really exist.

“In our 50th year – through a series of events and activities - we aim to re-engage people across Scotland with our core messages and motivate them to join our fight and help us to campaign until there’s a home for everyone.”