It is vital that we keep the housing rights we have, and that the Scottish Government and councils work together to make them a reality. This is the important message of a letter from Everyone Home, a collective of almost 40 3rd sector, lived experience and academic organisations, to the Cabinet Secretary this week. As a group of people who work every day to end homelessness for people across Scotland, this Collective is clear that we need to go forwards, not backwards, on the right to a home.

The Housing Emergency is not, and never can be, an excuse or cover to water down people’s rights. This is because the right to a safe home is not something just for times that are easy. It is exactly when times are tough, when councils need to decide between one priority or another, that rights come into their own.

Rights in law are a way of identifying – and even justifying – the tough choices that need to be made and setting priorities that focus on getting the fundamentals right. They are a way of ensuring that in the midst of many clamouring resource demands, people whose voices are less loud don’t just get forgotten or ignored.

Our right to a safe home is not just for some people, in some places, or with certain circumstances. Instead, these rights are for everyone. They are about all of us being treated with dignity and value.

And when something is your right – not just best practice or kindness or good luck or you happened to ask on a good day – it gives you dignity and a voice in the midst of navigating difficult life circumstances in a complex housing system.

Yet the reality is that over the last year, councils have openly admitted breaching their duties to realise these rights over 7,000 times. There is systemic failure, says the Scottish Housing Regulator. What’s more, the Scottish Human Rights Commission are clear that the failure to provide safe shelter is a breach of fundamental human rights obligations.

The Scottish Government’s reputation on human rights is hanging in the balance after their broken promise to introduce a Scottish Human Rights Bill earlier this year. They have a job of work to do to convince people that what they say about wanting to be rights-based is what they actually do.

Ministers now need to urgently reassure people who are homeless, and the sector, that regression on housing rights is not ever on the cards on their watch.

Instead, the Scottish Government and local authorities need to get round the table to find innovative and effective ways to consistently meet their statutory duties. Scotland has some of the strongest rights for people facing homelessness in Europe – something we can be proud of and should cherish. Now we are asking our policy makers to prioritise making these rights a reality.