The focus of Right Here, Right Now is what action taken now can ease the escalating crisis and what needs to happen next to create a better long-term future.

Insight will be gathered through sessions and debates hooked on four urgent themes – Housing Supply, Supporting People, Rights and Duties, and Prevention.

Keynote guests at the event at Perth Concert Hall include TV presenter, mental health advocate and motivational speaker Gail Porter, who has experienced homelessness. 

Housing minister Paul McLennan will address the conference and be quizzed on stage by members of the All in for Change team who have lived experience of homelessness. 

And in another must-see set piece, Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, will interview Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

This year’s conference is the first since the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency. Twelve local authorities have declared their own emergencies.

And it comes weeks after annual homelessness statistics released by the Scottish Government revealed rising homelessness applications, rough sleeping, and more than 10,000 children now living in temporary accommodation.

Sessions and debates over the two days cover issues including the housing emergency, the impact of hostile UK immigration policy in Scotland, making wider prevention duties in the Housing Bill work, and how to support increasingly pressurised frontline staff.

The conference is delivered by Homeless Network Scotland in partnership with The Salvation Army and sponsor Wheatley Group on 29 and 30 October. 

Maggie Brünjes, chief executive, Homeless Network Scotland, said: “The people in the room in Perth will bring unrivalled expertise and opinion on what needs to happen to ensure people are prioritised, and the sector united, during a housing emergency. 

“This is about harnessing our collective will over two days to close the gap between great policy and what people are seeing and experiencing on the ground. The homelessness statistics released earlier this month illustrate in depressing detail why this conference feels like it carries a real sense of urgency.

“You only have to look at the line-up of guests, and to know the kind of supporters who come to the conference, to know that this is the right group of people to set in motion change for the better.”