Hundreds More Children Homeless

Two hundred more children are homeless in Scotland than there was last year.

Official figures show around 4,300 youngsters were living in temporary accomodation between October and December 2012.

Shelter Scotland says the rise is "worrying" and is calling for more affordable housing to be built.

The data from Scotland's Chief Statistician also shows the overall number of homelessness applications is down.

Councils dealt with approximately 7,800 requests in the last three months of 2014, a drop of five percent on the previous 12 months.

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said:
 
“The increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation is deeply concerning, particularly as they include 4,333 homeless children – an increase of 199 children compared to last year.
 
“To compound their hardship, we know that too many families and individuals are spending extended periods, six month or even longer, in a home they can’t call their own.
 
“Thousands of people across Scotland are struggling to get out of temporary accommodation and into a home of their own. At the heart of this is a chronic housing crisis with a lack of affordable accommodation across Scotland.
 
“We need to see at least 10,000 new socially rented homes a year to bring hope to homeless households and the 150,500 people currently on local authority housing waiting lists.”
 
The number of people assessed as homeless, or likely to become homeless within two months, fell by one per cent to around 6,800.

Where contact was maintained with the person, four out of five classed as unintentionally homeless went on to secure settled accommodation such as council housing, housing association, or private lets.

This proportion has remained stable for the past seven years.