A number of homeless people have been moved out of Edinburgh to make way for tourists ahead of Taylor Swift performing in the city next month.
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As per BBC News, Shelter Scotland have reported that several homeless people it has been supporting have been sent by taxi to Aberdeen and Glasgow because of a shortage of accommodation in the city due to the upcoming concerts.
The housing charity told the BBC it was “a blatant injustice” for homeless people to be “in direct competition” with tourists visiting the city.
They added that people being declared homeless in Edinburgh who would usually be offered temporary accommodation via hotels were instead being sent away from the city due to what the BBC say is “a severe shortage in accommodation caused by the concert.”
Swift will be playing three nights at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium from June 7-9. Thousands of fans will be in attendance in the city and as a result, accommodation in Edinburgh will be scarce in that period.
Homeless families and tourists being forced to compete for the same accommodation is further evidence of @Edinburgh_CC and indeed most of Scotland’s #HousingEmergency.
Business as usual from @ScotGov won’t cut it. They need to deliver an emergency action plan, now! https://t.co/7PwdQKIXJT
— Shelter Scotland (@shelterscotland) May 29, 2024
In Scotland, there is a legal obligation for anyone declared homeless to be offered emergency temporary accommodation – like a hotel – in the first instance.
Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson told the BBC: “In Edinburgh that emergency now places people experiencing homelessness in direct competition with tourists; a blatant injustice.
“Our frontline services are already seeing people in need of a bed tonight being told their only option is to leave of the city.
“A family going through the trauma of homelessness in Edinburgh should not have to move miles from their job, school, and community to find emergency accommodation.”
NME has reached out to a representative of Edinburgh Council for comment.
Swift is due to begin the UK and Ireland leg of her huge career-spanning tour next month. She’ll visit Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and Dublin, and play eight sold-out concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium. Support will come from Paramore.
The ‘Eras Tour’ has already crossed the billion-dollar mark, and is on course to become the most lucrative tour in music history. It has had a significant impact on the US economy, and brought 0.2 percentage points of GDP to Singapore’s economy (roughly equivalent to $200million).
Per Business Matters, 4.35million tickets had been sold across 60 dates as of November 2023. The run of gigs also earned $200million in official merch sales.
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