Plea over temporary housing for families
ACTION to prevent homeless people stuck in temporary accommodation is needed according to a Glasgow MSP.
Pauline McNeill, Labour MSP said there has been an increase in the number of children in temporary accommodation and the length of time spent there.
She asked Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart, to explain the increase and ask what action is being taken to get people into permanent homes.
She asked if it “would be helpful if the Scottish Government were to agree minimum standards for temporary and emergency accommodation in order to ensure that families have decent and affordable accommodation”.
Mr Stewart said temporary accommodation was a necessary part of homelessness legislation.
He said he wanted the time spent there to be as short as possible but that it was used to iden- tify the right housing solution for those affected.
Ms McNeill said there was more than 800 more children in temporary accommodation compared to last year.
Mr Stewart said the number of households in temporary accommodation had decreased slightly but said it was unfortunate the number of children living in households in that situation had increased.
Mr Stewart said action was being taken to increase the number of affordable homes and to improve standards for those in temporary accommodation.
He added: “We will introduce a cap of one week living in B and B accommodation for families with children and pregnant women.”
He said 86% of temporary accommodation in Scotland was in the social housing sector ensuring standards were higher.