Queen’s Park Hotel provides temporary accommodation for homeless people. Neighbours have raised concerns for the residents’ welfare after witnessing altercations with staff.
The hotel in Glasgow, accused of being run as an “open prison”, receives up to £1 million a year of taxpayers’ cash to house the city’s homeless.
The Queen’s Park Hotel charges Glasgow City Council £1,400 a month for a single room with a shared toilet.
Balvicar Drive Hotel charges £2,800 a month in housing benefit for one homeless couple for a double room – the same amount it costs to rent a three-bedroom, two-bathroom luxury cottage in Glasgow’s prestigious parkland area.
A minimum of four double rooms can be rented for couples, adding up to a staggering £134,400 a year.
One resident at the Queen’s Park Hotel said their dirty single room consisted of a bed with a dirty mattress, “unhygienic carpet” and access to a faulty toilet that had to be flushed with a bucket for days before it was fixed.
The resident said : “There is goo, drips and stains everywhere, including streaks of what I wouldn’t want to identify, on the mattress pad.”
A resident who uses one of the 12 shared bathrooms said the sink in their room “triples for cleaning, dishwashing and laundry as I can’t afford the exorbitant prices at the self-service laundry.”
The hotel provides ’emergency’ accommodation for the homeless and by law they must stay there for no more than seven days.
However, according to a FOI request to local authorities, there were 315 individual stays in the seven months between September 2021 and May 2022, of which 70% exceeded the legal maximum of seven days.
The figures showed that last September the hotel accommodated a guest for 16 months.
Many residents at Queen’s Park have mental health and addiction problems, but because it is a hotel, staff do not need training or disclosure checks to deal with vulnerable people.
One resident said: “My mental health is getting worse every day. When you’re not even allowed to talk to other residents, you can’t even chat when you feel unwell. I spend most of the day sleeping because there is no reason to be awake.
“Even prisoners are allowed to talk to each other. We are constantly afraid of being ‘cancelled’, which means being thrown out on the street. It’s horrible. It’s inhumane.”
Neighbours of the hotel wrote to Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney complaining about anti-social behaviour and expressing concern for the welfare of residents after witnessing arguments with staff.
Mr Sweeney said: “I was horrified to learn of some of the anti-social behaviour that had taken place in and around the Queen’s Park Hotel. It is clear that hotel owners are making huge profits from contracts with Glasgow City Council to provide temporary accommodation which is totally unsuitable for homeless people and that they are failing both in their duty of care to those living there and in their lives.
“Concerns have been raised about the conditions at the hotel and the treatment of those living there.
“I will continue to call for tougher action against hotel owners who do not fulfil their duty to ensure the safety of the residents, and I repeat that any organisation that receives public money must meet the highest standards. I don’t think that is the case in this case.”
Now neighbours on the same green residential street have also expressed concerns about the welfare of the hotel’s residents.
A neighbour said: “The hotel is ill-suited to its current role. We deserve better and so do the hotel guests.”
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The council has a duty to provide emergency accommodation for homeless people and uses a variety of accommodation options, including a number of B&B establishments.
“Those housed in a hotel or B&B are supported by social workers and our homelessness team regularly liaises directly with accommodation operators.
“As with most bed and breakfast establishments, there will be a curfew to ensure the comfort and safety of all residents.”