Rise in children living in temporary homes

The number of children living in temporary accommodation has risen by 10% over a year, according to new figures.

There were 6,581 children living in temporary homes on September 30 last year, up by 594 compared with the same day in 2016.

Housing charity Shelter Scotland described the statistics as a “wake-up call” for local and national government.

The figures were among official homelessness statistics published by the Scottish Government.

The data also shows councils received 17,797 applications for homelessness assistance between April and September 2017, 2% higher compared with the same period during 2016.

A total of 34,864 applications were received in the year to September 2017, up 0.3% on the 34,746 received during the previous 12 months.

Meanwhile, local authorities made around 17,700 homelessness assessments in the six months to September 2017, with just over 80% of cases assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness.

The figures also show that overall there were almost 10,900 households living in temporary accommodation on September 30 last year, up by 1% on the same day in 2016.

A third of these households included children or a pregnant woman.

Adam Lang, of Shelter Scotland, said: “These figures show that on average between April to September 2017 a household in Scotland became homeless every 18 minutes.

“This must be a wake-up call for local and national government that Scotland’s progress on tackling homelessness has stalled and in some places, is getting worse.”