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Publication - Progress report

Ending Homelessness Together: annual report 2021

Published
7 October 2021
Topic
Equality and rights, Housing
ISBN
9781802013986

Annual report setting out the progress made in the last 12 months by national government, local government and third sector partners against actions in the Ending Homelessness Together action plan.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Annex 1: homelessness statistics

The Scottish Government's latest homelessness statistics remind us why our commitment to end homelessness is so important.

The emergency measures we put in place to protect tenants from eviction has contributed to a 42 per cent reduction in homelessness applications from people in the private rented sector compared to 2019/20.

Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to keep people safe from coronavirus. Although this has contributed to an increase in the numbers in temporary accommodation, we are starting to see reductions in number of open homeless cases and in the number of households in temporary accommodation since peaks in August 2020.

And while we do not collect and publish data on the number of people sleeping rough, the statistics show that a smaller proportion of those making homelessness applications reported sleeping rough in the three months prior to their application when compared with last year.

Infograpgic - Main findings from the Scottish Government’s Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 statistics publication

Main findings from the Scottish Government’s Homelessness in Scotland: 2020 to 2021 statistics publication

Figure 1: Number of applications and those assessed as homeless: 2002-03 to 2020-21
Number of applications and those assessed as homeless between 2002-03 and 2020-21
Figure 2: Households where at least one household member experienced rough sleeping the night before their application and in the three months prior to their application
Households where at least one household member experienced rough sleeping the night before their application and in the three months prior to their application

Figure 3: Rough sleeping the night before application: 2002-03 to 2020-21
Applicants reported to be rough sleeping the night before application between 2002-03 and 2020-21

Figure 4: Main reason for making a homelessness application: 2020-21
Main reason for making a homelessness application in 2020-21

Figure 5: Reasons for failing to maintain accommodation, 2019-20 and 2020-21
Reasons for failing to maintain accommodation in 2019-20 and 2020-21
Table 1: Property type from which the household became homeless: 2019-20 to 2020-21
  2019-20 2020-21
All assessed as homeless 31,581 27,571
Own property - LA tenancy 2,877 2,600
Own property - RSL tenancy 1,541 1,490
Own property - private rented tenancy 5,145 2,984
Own property - tenancy secured through employment / tied house 218 229
Own property - owning / buying 1,096 929
Own property - Shared ownership / Shared equity / LCHO 26 22
Parental / family home / relatives 7,626 8,159
Friends / partners 5,601 5,929
Lodger 406 287
Armed services accommodation 47 30
Prison 1,756 1,574
Hospital 229 146
Childrens residential accommodation (looked after by the local authority) 41 40
Shared Property – Private Rented Sector 143 85
Shared Property – Local authority 40 32
Shared Property - RSL 47 51
Supported accommodation 1,456 746
Hostel (unsupported) 98 69
Bed & Breakfast 41 84
Caravan / mobile home 132 123
Long-term roofless 157 120
Long-term "sofa-surfing" 743 662
Other 861 682
Not known / refused 1,254 498
Table 2: Property type from which the household became homeless, as a proportion of all households assessed as homeless: 2019-20 to 2020-21
All assessed as homeless 2019-20 2020-21
100% 100%
Own property - LA tenancy 9% 9%
Own property - RSL tenancy 5% 5%
Own property - private rented tenancy 16% 11%
Own property - tenancy secured through employment / tied house 1% 1%
Own property - owning / buying 3% 3%
Own property - Shared ownership / Shared equity / LCHO 0% 0%
Parental / family home / relatives 24% 30%
Friends / partners 18% 22%
Lodger 1% 1%
Armed services accommodation 0% 0%
Prison 6% 6%
Hospital 1% 1%
Childrens residential accommodation (looked after by the local authority) 0% 0%
Shared Property – Private Rented Sector 0% 0%
Shared Property – Local authority 0% 0%
Shared Property - RSL 0% 0%
Supported accommodation 5% 3%
Hostel (unsupported) 0% 0%
Bed & Breakfast 0% 0%
Caravan / mobile home 0% 0%
Long-term roofless 0% 0%
Long-term "sofa-surfing" 2% 2%
Other 3% 2%
Not known / refused 4% 2%
Table 3: Support needs of households assessed as homeless: 2019-20 and 2020-21
  2019-20 2020-21
Mental health problem 8,404 7,397
Learning disability 932 736
Physical disability 1,839 1,246
Medical condition 3,091 2,405
Drug or alcohol dependency 3,560 3,248
Basic housing management / independent living skills 7,395 7,113
At least one support need 16,204 14,106
Figure 6: Number of households in temporary accommodation as at 31 March, by local authority: 2002 to 2021
Number of households in temporary accommodation on 31 March in each Scottish local authority between 2002 and 2021
Table 4: Temporary accommodation type: 2020-21
All households
Social sector accommodation Hostel Bed & Breakfast Other Total
8,840 710 1,130 2,415 13,095
Households with pregnant women/children
Social sector accommodation Hostel Bed & Breakfast Other Total
2,795 0 20 830 3,645
Table 5: Number of temporary accommodation placements: 2020-21
  None One Two Three Four Five+ All
All 8,720 9,470 4,595 1,520 645 955 25,905
Figure 7: Average number of days in temporary accommodation, 2020-21
Average number of days spent in temporary accommodation by household type in 2020-21
Table 6: Number of temporary accommodation placements that have been in breach of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order, by local authority: 2018-19 to 2020-2021
  2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Apr-Jun July-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun July-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun July-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-Mar
Scotland 200 175 155 110 110 110 170 125 40 185 160 105
Figure 8: Proportion of unintentionally homeless households securing settled accommodation: 2002/03 to 2020/21
Proportion of unintentionally homeless households securing settled accommodation: 2002/03 to 2020/21
Figure 9: Households assessed as homeless that have previously been assessed as homeless in the previous one, three and five years
Homeless households that have previously been assessed as homeless in the previous one, three and five years

Contact

Email: Homelessness_External_Mail@gov.scot

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