Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is seeing people who are homeless in Edinburgh pitted against tourists for hotel space in Edinburgh. It’s become the norm and the Scottish government must act, Shelter Scotland’s Alison Watson writes
A family or individual in Edinburgh who is going through the trauma of homelessness should not be asked to move miles away from their jobs, their schools, or their communities to access emergency accommodation. But that is the sad reality of what’s happening in Scotland’s capital.
Taylor Swift’s Murrayfield concert brought this issue into the headlines, but this concert isn’t the first time we’ve seen the situation emerge. During the Edinburgh Festival, the Six Nations, and over the festive period the same thing happens again and again. Without urgent intervention from the Scottish government, it will keep happening.
The housing system is now so broken that people experiencing homelessness are pitted in direct competition with tourists; that injustice is as obvious as it is shameful. It simply shouldn’t be the case that a city like Edinburgh, a global destination for tourism, can’t host a major event without it having a significant knock-on effect for people experiencing homelessness.
Read the full Big Issue article at www.bigissue.com/opinion/taylor-swift-eras-tour-edinburgh-homeless-hotels/
