Levels of homelessness down across Scotland

Protections against evictions have resulted in a drop in national homelessness figures in the last year in Scotland.

A new report form the Scottish Government reports over four thousand less households are considered homeless or threatened by homelessness now in comparison to the previous year.

The statistics, which cover 20/21, are the first which cover a full period of Covid-19 restriction measures.

Protections brought in throughout the pandemic to protect tenants from eviction have had a big influence, with a 9% decrease in applications for homelessness assistance, when compared to the previous year.

On the flip side of that, there was also a reduction in the number of cases closed. As a result, the number of open homelessness cases at 31 March 2021 reached 25,226, a 10% increase compared to 31 March 2020. This peaked at 27,058 as at 30 September 2020.

Speaking on the release of the report, Housing Secretary Shona Robison commented:

“Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government’s priority has been to keep people safe from coronavirus.

“We introduced protections to prevent evictions, which have contributed to a 42 per cent reduction in homelessness applications from the private rented sector.

“As recently as last week we announced a £10 million grant fund to support tenants who are struggling as a direct result of the pandemic.

“We also saw a huge effort by partners to work collectively and move hundreds of people from the streets and night shelters into a place of safety. The number of people sleeping rough in the areas where it was concentrated is now at a record low."

Robison says that the Scottish Government will now work with councils to ensure people are supported post-pandemic into permanent settled accommodation.

"We are investing £37.5 million to support councils to prioritise settled accommodation for all.

“I am glad we are starting to see reductions in number of open homeless cases and in the number of households in temporary accommodation since peaks in September 2020.

“We have pledged an extra £50 million to end homelessness and rough sleeping. Our updated Ending Homelessness Together action plan, published with COSLA in October 2020, renews our commitment and is strongly endorsed by stakeholders.

“We are taking firm action and this month revealed that 102,055 affordable homes have been delivered since April 2007, with 70,866 of these for social rent.

“We also plan to deliver another 100,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70 per cent for social rent, as part of our Housing to 2040 strategy.”

Gordon MacRae, Assistant Director of housing charity Shelter Scotland, said:

“These figures show that the unprecedented action taken to keep people in their homes during the pandemic has worked. It meant that the number of people applying for homelessness assistance went down overall. Despite this council homelessness teams have never been busier, exposing that local services are at breaking point and may be unable to cope with a future spike in homelessness when pandemic restrictions are lifted.

“The Scottish Government were right to pass legislation to keep people in their homes but we can and must do more during the pandemic.

“Longer term we need to address the reasons that our housing system has become so broken and biased. We need to build our way out of the housing emergency by accelerating the Scottish Government’s ten-year plan for social house building. We need a minimum of 37,100 social homes during this this Parliament.

“At a time when 95% of the Scottish adult population is white but only 87% of applications came from white households we must do more to understand why People of Colour and other marginalised groups are more likely to experience homelessness than other communities. By delivering on the promise to making housing a human right for everyone, Scottish Ministers can put social justice at the heart of Scotland’s housing system.”

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