Homelessness in Scotland: 2023-24

Characteristics of the homeless population

The following findings provide a broad overview of the characteristics of the homeless population and how they compare to the Scottish (adult) population. They highlight key findings where differences exist for aspects of homelessness across the characteristics of age, gender, and ethnicity. Characteristics are based on those of the main applicant.

Although data is captured for the main applicant and a second applicant where applicable, findings are based on the characteristics of the main applicant only, for ease of reporting. Given the majority of homeless households only contain one adult, this only affects 11% of all households where there are two or more adults.

The characteristics of a household are initially collected by the local authority at the application stage. While it is possible for these characteristics to change between application and case closure, it may not be practical for the data collection to be updated to reflect these changes. Therefore, for a small number of households, the characteristics information reported may be out of date. This is most likely to affect household composition.

Detailed figures are available in accompanying equalities tables from our supporting documents page. Caution should be taken when interpreting results based on small numbers of households. This is particularly true when comparing results for different ethnic groups.

Age

• The homeless population is younger than the overall adult Scottish population (16+)
• Reasons and prior circumstances
  • Younger people are more likely to become homeless for the reason of being asked to leave
  • The proportion becoming homeless from a private rented tenancy and owning own property increases with age
• Support needs
  • Younger applications are more likely to require basic housing or living skills support
  • Drug or alcohol dependency is most common amongst 35-49 year olds
  • Older applicants are more likely to have support needs related to medical condition
• Rough sleeping is most common amongst 35-64 year olds
• Repeat homelessness is least common amongst the youngest and oldest applicant
• Temporary accommodation
  • Younger applicants are more likely to take up temporary accommodation whilst older applicants are least likely
  • Youngest and oldest applicants spent the least amount of time in temporary accommodation – 190 days and 193 days respectively on average compared to an overall average of 226 days
  • 25-49 year olds were most likely to breach the unsuitable accommodation order
• Outcomes
  • For most ages, 82 to 85% secured settled accommodation
  • The exception was 16-17 year olds where only 76% secured settled accommodation
  • Average time for case closure was shortest for 65+ age group

Gender and household type

• 58% of homeless households (main applicant) are male compared to 48% of the adult Scottish population
• Reasons and prior circumstances
  • Women are more likely to be homeless as a result of a violent or abusive household dispute
• 85% of those reporting rough sleeping in the previous three months were men
• 71% of those who had previously been assessed as homeless in the last year were men
• Homeless households are more likely to be single adult or single parent compared to the overall population
  • Single parent households are more likely to be female – 15% compared to 5% male
  • Single person households more likely to be male – 48% compared to 20% female
• Cumulative bar chart showing the proportion of homeless households by household
• Property types homeless from
  • Women are more likely to become homelessness from private rented tenancies
  • Men are more likely to become homelessness from supported accommodation, prison and sofa surfing
• Temporary accommodation
  • Women spend longer in temporary accommodation – an average of 243 days compared to 215 days for men, although men are more likely to use it (67%) than women (57%)
  • Men account for 87% of temporary accommodation not offered and 73% of breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order
  • Households with children spend much longer, on average, in temporary accommodation
• Outcomes
  • Women are more likely to secure settled accommodation – 85% compared to 81% of men
  • Single male households are least likely to secure settled accommodation – 79% compared to 81% for single female households and 83% overall
  • Households with children are more likely to secure settled accommodation than those without – 85% compared to 78%

Ethnicity

• Ethnicity
  • 80% of homeless households (main applicant) are of white ethnicity compared to 97% of the adult Scottish population and compared to 87% in 2019-20
  • White Scottish and White Irish are the only ethnicities with a numerical decrease since 2019-20
  • Numbers have increased by a third or more for ethnicities that are not white across all categories except Caribbean/Black
  • Largest increases for not known/reused, other and Arabian
• Temporary accommodation
  • Bar chart showing temporary accommodation take up by ethnicity
• Homelessness
  • Most common reasons for homelessness are notably different for those of Ukrainian and other ethnicities with a much larger proportion of other reasons
  • Ukrainians were more commonly homeless due to emergency than any other ethnicity
• Support needs
  • White Scottish and Other British main applicants are more likely to have a support need compared to any other ethnicity
• Outcomes
  • Bar chart showing proportion securing settled accommodation by ethnicity