Homelessness in Scotland: 2023-24

A note on interpreting the figures

It is not possible to make direct links within a reporting year for the different stages of the homelessness process as different households will be at a different stage at different times.

That is, not all applications made in 2023-24 will have an assessment or temporary accommodation placement that year. Similarly, some assessments made in 2023-24 will relate to applications received prior to this; and some temporary placements in 2023-24 will relate to household applications and assessments prior to this also. Furthermore, there will be households who entered and exited temporary accommodation within the same reporting year, and therefore will not appear in the end of year snapshot of households in temporary accommodation.

To also note:

• it is possible for households to make an application and/or be assessed more than once in the same year
• not all households assessed as homeless enter temporary accommodation

The term ‘homeless households’ is used throughout the publication to denote households who have been assessed as (unintentionally or intentionally) homeless or threatened with homelessness.

Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

There was a departure from longer-term trends for some aspects of homelessness following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions; this was particularly the case for the period April to June 2020. Caution should therefore be applied when making comparisons with the 2020-21 figures, however, these comparisons are in themseves useful in observing any changes in trends over the the pandemic period.

Local authorities are still reporting the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on homelessness service provision. In particular, backlogs built up due to increased demand for temporary accommodation and restrictions limiting the ability to move households in to permanent accommodation. Where findings are believed to have been impacted by COVID-19 these have been outlined within the relevant sections.

Impact of cost of living crisis

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 was introduced from 27 October 2022 in response to the cost of living crisis, to protect residential tenants from increases in rent and from eviction.

Where figures are believed to have been impacted by cost of living crisis, these have been outlined within the relevant sections.

Impact of Ukrainian displaced people

There has been negligible impact on the national increase in homelessness applications from Ukrainian displaced households. Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, there were 290 applications from Ukrainian displaced households – 0.7% of the national total. Two-fifths of these were in Glasgow, accounting for 115 households, which was less than the 150 in 2022-23. Data relating to Ukrainian displaced households has been made available in a separate workbook available on our supporting documents page.

Impact of changes to local connection legislation

Of the 33,619 households that were assesed as homeless in 2023-24, 985 (3%) were reported as having a local connection to another (Scottish) local authority only. This means that 97% had either a local connection to the local authority, or no local connection to any local authority in Scotland.

Given this has been consistently between 2% and 3% for the last few years, it would appear that the change in legislation is not having a notable impact on the number of applications as an result of the changes in legislation.

Temporary accommodation data sources

Local authorities provide two sets of temporary accommodation data:

1. aggregate snapshot information as at the end of the quarter, available since 2002
2. placement level information, provided since 2016

The snapshot data is used to report headline temporary accommodation figures (i.e. households, households with children and number of children as at 31 March). The placement level information is used to provide greater detail and context around the use of temporary accommodation (e.g. number of placements, length of time).

The plan is to discontinue the snapshot collection given the richer placement level data. However, this has been difficult due to:

• figures between the two sources not matching (placement level returns are higher by 4%); and
• the placement level information not containing information on children within the placements.

New questions were introduced into the placement level collection in 2019 and this data has been provided by all 32 local authorities. This is subject to on-going quality assurance. New data relating to the individual placement return has been made available in a separate workbook on our supporting documents page.

Stock transfer authorities

For six local authorities – Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Eilean Siar, Glasgow, Inverclyde, and Scottish Borders – stock was transferred from local authority control to housing associations between 2003 and 2007. This should be borne in mind when interpreting figures at local authority level, particularly for outcomes by accommodation type.