1.5 million Scots are affected by housing issues
More than one in three adults living in Scotland are now impacted by the housing emergency.
An online poll by Yougov for Shelter Scotland found 1.5 million adults in Scotland (36 per cent) are currently struggling with the condition, security, suitability, or affordability of their home, or have been discriminated against while trying to find it.
Three per cent of respondents – representing more than 130,000 adults – agreed they had experienced discrimination in the search for their current home and felt it was because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion or disability.
The number of people in unsafe or insecure housing rises to a shocking 1.9 million when children are included in the total.
The charity said people who agreed they had experienced discrimination when trying to find their current home were almost three times as likely to be struggling with issues such as overcrowding, poor conditions, insecurity or affordability.
Calling on the Scottish Government to accelerate its 10-year plan for social house building, Shelter Scotland assistant director Gordon Macrae said: “At a time when 95 per cent of the Scottish adult population is white but only 87 per cent 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.”
Figures published in June show that local authorities in Scotland have seen a 10 per cent increase in the number of live homelessness cases in the last year.
At the end of March this year, there were 13,097 households in temporary accommodation (up 12 per cent on 2019-2020) and 25,226 live cases (up 10 per cent on 2019-2020).
The number of households assessed as homeless in the 12 months to the end of March 2021 fell by 13 per cent as evictions and mortgage repossessions were restricted by law in the pandemic.
Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson said:“scotland’s housing system is broken and biased. It is failing people. Hundreds of thousands of people are being held back by the lack of a proper home that would support them to flourish.
“You don’t have to be living on the streets to be severely impacted by the housing emergency. Hundreds of thousands are putting up with the unacceptable, counting their blessings that it’s not worse. We have to stand up and demand better for everyone.
“Our housing system is horribly unequal. The fight for home starts here. We’re asking people to join us whether they are personally affected by this or not. Together we will campaign to end this injustice.”