EVIDENCE

LATEST Scottish statistics show a three per cent increase in homelessness applications in 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.

In total, 17,797 people made applications between April and September 2017. This is after a long-term decrease in homeless applications since 2010.

The Scottish Government report states that “this downward trend has slowed down over the last couple of years and has levelled out since 2015”.

However, the problem is much greater in England, which has seen homelessness increase since 2010.

In the newspaper interview on March 18, Wheeler contrasted the situation in Scotland and England, arguing that the central issue was about the availability of affordable housing for the homeless.

She said Scotland does not use “private sector rental” to house people. This is not correct.

Scottish housing charity Shelter confirmed to FFS that private sector accommodation is still used extensively by local authorities for homeless people.

Scottish Government statistics show a significant number of Scots are put up in “temporary accommodation” while space is found in the social sector. These commonly include privately run hostels and bed and breakfast lodgings.

According to the most recent figures, there were 10,899 people in temporary accommodation in Scotland, a small increase on 2016. Of this total, nearly 3500 were being housed in private lodgings, with more than 1000 in bed and breakfast accommodation and 976 in private hostels. This means about 30 per cent of those in temporary accommodation are in private lodgings. Statistics from Shelter last year found 60 per cent of homeless households spent time in temporary accommodation before finding permanent lodgings. Twelve per cent of homeless households spent more than a year in temporary lodgings in 2016. The homelessness minister also suggested the reason for Scotland’s lack of reliance on private sector accommodation was down to a greater supply of affordable housing in Scotland. Scotland’s affordable housing situation has long been a matter of contention. Waiting lists for housing are hard to assess accurately, as there is a lack of accurate and consistently measured data across Scotland’s local authorities.

There are also known cases of “double counting” – where those awaiting housing are put on waiting lists for more than one local authority, leading to unmeasurable distortion in the data.

Despite this uncertainty, it is clear there is a significant waiting list for housing in Scotland. The current overall waiting list sits at 143,100. This is a clear indication that Scotland suffers from a lack of supply in affordable housing.

The Scottish Government have committed to building 50,000 new affordable homes across the current parliamentary period.