Homeless applications down but temporary accommodation up
The number of Scots living in temporary accommodation continues to increase, official statistics just released show.
Figures show that while homelessness applications are falling, those being placed in temporary accommodation is rising indicating local authorities are increasingly using it to cope with the lack of social housing across Scotland.
Scottish local authorities received around 34,100 applications for homelessness assistance during 2016/17, some 2% lower than in the same period in 2015/16.
However there were 10,873 households in temporary accommodation as at 31 March 2017 – an increase of 330 households (+3%) compared with one year earlier.
Over a quarter (3,250 households) included children or a pregnant member of the household - an increase of 367 households since the same time last year.
The number of children in temporary accommodation also increased, by 16% compared to the last year.
Adam Lang, head of communications and policy at Shelter Scotland, said: "These numbers show that on average last year a household in Scotland became homeless every 19 minutes.
“We know that families with children are spending longer and longer in temporary accommodation waiting for a home. This can be particularly detrimental to children’s health, life chances and education, as children without a settled home can miss up to 55 school days each year.
"We want to see a new National Homelessness Strategy in Scotland to ensure all aspects of local and national government work together better to tackle and prevent homelessness."
The figures come as the Rev Graeme Wilson, convener of Scottish Churches Housing Action, called for an approach that “seeks to eradicate, rather than just to manage, Scotland’s major problems of homelessness”.
In a letter to Kevin Stewart MSP, minister for local government and housing, Wlson says: “We have to be quite clear that responding to homelessness is not just a housing matter: housing is essential, but not enough.
“We need to be sure that ministers and cabinet secretaries with responsibility for education, health, community justice, young people in care, and job creation are all aware of what they should be doing to ensure that there is no room for homelessness in Scotland”.
Meanwhile homeless people in Edinburgh are dying at a rate of more than one every three weeks, according to figures released by the city council.
Figures show 10 men and eight women died sleeping rough between April 2015 and March 2016.
Last month that 39 homeless people died in Glasgow in just 10 months.
The figures were released in response to a freedom of information request.
Ann Landels, director of Crisis Scotland, said: “These are truly awful figures, and a desperate reminder of the dangers faced by those who have no choice but to sleep on the streets.
"Scotland has made considerable progress in the fight against homelessness, but homelessness is increasingly visible on the streets of our cities.
“Behind the statistics there may be growing numbers who have simply fallen off the radar.”
