Housing Associations and partners across Scotland have pledged up to 350 homes for vulnerable Syrian families.

The response co-ordinated by the Scottish RSL Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis will help local authorities home Syrian families being relocated to the UK as part of the Vulnerable Person Relocation (VPR) scheme run by the UK Government.

Scotland has welcomed more than 1,200 Syrian refugees since the first flight arrived in Glasgow on November 15 last year.

The Scottish Government has said that up to June this year Scotland received a third of refugees who have arrived into the UK through the Syrian Resettlement Programme.

Jim Strang, chairman of the Scottish RSL, said: “I’m more than delighted that we, as a sector, we can hold our heads up high, when people were in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, we stepped up to the plate.”

Mary Taylor, chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said: “Scotland’s housing sector has a long history of helping people on housing need, and the fantastic response from the housing associations and co-operatives from Scotland reinforces the humanitarian ethos that underpins the housing association movement in Scotland.”

Source: pressandjournal.co.uk