Homelessness in Scotland: update to 30 September 2023

Reasons for Homelessness and Prior Circumstances

Key Points

• proportions becoming homeless from a private rented tenancy have been reacting to changes in legislation.​​​
• increases in the reporting of rough sleeping, particularly over the last quarter.

Reasons

Most common reasons for homelessness remain constant

Chart 1: Main reasons for homelessness, April to September 2023

‘Other action by landlord resulting in the termination of the tenancy’ has experienced the most fluctuation over the last few years. This is likely connected to changes in legislation, as can also be seen in the proportions becoming homeless from a private rented tenacy below.

Some applicants (76%) also provided additional reasons for homelessness. ‘Not to do with applicant household’ (51%) was the most common, followed by ‘mental health reasons’ (27%).

Previous property

Households becoming homeless from friends, relatives and partners account for nearly half of the total

Chart 2: Property type from which the household became homeless, April to September 2023

As noted above, the proportion of households becoming homeless from a ‘Private rented tenancy’ has experienced the most fluctuation over the last few years.

Households becoming homeless from a private rented tenancy has been reacting to legislation changes

Chart 3: Number and proportion of households becoming homeless from a private rented tenancy, January 2020 to September 2023

Rough sleeping

Over the six-month period 1 April to 30 September 2023, 888 households (4% of all applications) reported rough sleeping the night before and 1,408 households (7% of all applications) in the previous three months before their homelessness application.

There were particualarly sharp increases in the reporting of rough sleeping over the last quarter

Chart 4: Households experiencing rough sleeping prior to making a homelessness application, quarterly, January 2020 to September 2023