Homelessness charity Shelter Scotland took its latest campaign to Edinburgh as it revealed nearly 500 children are in termporary accommodation
Shelter Scotland has taken its major new campaign Homelessness: Far From Fixed to Edinburgh's Royal Mile in a bid to galvanise public and political support to finally fix the human tragedy of homelessness in Scotland.
The housing and homelessness charity has called Scotland’s current level of homelessness a national badge of shame for one of the world’s richest nations. It has accused local and national government of taking their eye off the ball in recent years on efforts to tackle and prevent homelessness in Scotland.
The campaign urges members of the public and politicians to sign up to its demands of local and national government.
Edinburgh homeless statistics
• 3431 homelessness assessments made in Edinburgh last year
• 1026 Edinburgh households currently in temporary housing
• 493 children in Edinburgh currently in temporary housing
• 2617 Edinburgh cases opened by Shelter advisors and volunteers last year
• 1830 calls to Shelter Scotland’s free national helpline from Edinburgh last year
To coincide with the campaign launch last month, Shelter Scotland released new research which showed 75% of people in Scotland agree that homelessness is a problem and that 54% agree the Scottish Government could do more to tackle it.
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “We are one of the richest nations in the world, yet nearly 30,000 households became homeless last year and more than 65,000 households approached their local authority for help with housing.
“It’s shameful that each year there are thousands of people sleeping rough on our streets, that there are thousands more hidden homeless people sofa surfing with friends and that tomorrow morning more than 5,000 children in Scotland will wake up in temporary accommodation without a permanent home of their own.
“Shelter Scotland thinks that the time for good rhetoric and resting on our laurels is over. We need to face up to the reality that despite good progress in recent years, we are still failing too many people in our society, particularly the most vulnerable, with the most basic of human rights, the right to shelter and a home."
In support of its Far From Fixed campaign launch, Shelter Scotland has produced a detailed report outlining its vision of the next steps and priority actions for homelessness policy in Scotland and the need for a new National Strategy on Homelessness.
