Scotland `Needs A Plan To Tackle Child Homelessness`

Scottish Labour's Claire Baker is calling for action over child homelessness this Christmas.

Claire Baker has called for the Scottish Government to ‘wake up’ to the growing housing crisis facing Scotland. The call comes after Shelter Scotland released figures showing that over 4,000 children in Scotland will be homeless this Christmas

As Scotland faces its worst Housing Crisis since the Second World War, Fife is the 4^th highest region for children housed in temporary accommodation behind Glasgow, Edinburgh and South Lanarkshire.

According to Shelter Scotland, a shortage of affordable social housing is the root cause of the problem, promoting Ms Baker to call for the Scottish Government to back Scottish Labour’s proposals for a National Housing Action Plan.

With close to 180,000 people in Scotland sitting on social housing waiting lists, the amount of children facing a homeless Christmas is enough to fill the Scottish Parliament chamber 32 times over and is equivalent to more than two homeless children for every primary school in Scotland.

Claire Baker MSP said:

“These figures will shock anyone who has read them and must act as a wake up call to the Scottish Government. Nobody wants to see a single child spend Christmas homeless, let alone 4,000, and we all must work together to fix this growing crisis.