The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Thousands of children homeless at Christmas
More than 12,300 children were homeless across Scotland last Christmas, figures indicate.
Scotland’s housing minister Kevin Stewart released statistics showing 12,343 children were part of live homelessness applications on Christmas Day 2018.
The figures were released in response to parliamentary questions by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
The party has said the numbers are “tragic” and called for a “revolution” in social rented housing.
The number of children homeless across Scotland had been rising since the 2015 figure of 10,508, until last year when it fell by 424 to 12,858.
The local authority with the largest number of children on its live homeless applications last Christmas was Glasgow City Council at 2,475, followed by Edinburgh City Council on 2,153.
Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokeswoman Caron Lindsay said: “Housing is a basic human need and it is a key responsibility of any government to ensure that people have a warm and secure home, especially at this time of year.
“These new statistics show that over 12,000 children – almost the capacity of the Hydro – are not so lucky.
“What’s more, there were almost 2,000 more children homeless last Christmas compared to 2015 – a 17.5% increase. That is a tragedy.”
Mr Stewart said: “Scotland has some of the strongest rights in the world for anyone experiencing homelessness, including the right to emergency temporary accommodation when homeless.
“While this provides an important safety net, we are clear such arrangements must be for as short a time as possible and be of good quality.”