Homelessness in Scotland: update to 30 September 2024

A note on interpreting the figures

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

That is, not all applications made between 1 April and 30 September 2024 will have an assessment or temporary accommodation placement within that same six-month period. Similarly, some assessments made between 1 April and 30 September 2024 will relate to applications received prior to this; and some temporary placements in this period 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 period, and therefore will not appear in the end of period 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 period (although this would be extremely unlikely in a six-month period).
• not all households assessed as homeless enter temporary accommodation.

Where the publication refers to ‘in the six-month period’ this relates to the period 1 April to 30 September 2024, unless another year has been specified in the text.  Where years e.g. 2024 and 2023 are referred to in the publication (including charts), this relates to the respective six-month period 1 April to 30 September in each of the years.

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 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 and 30 September 2024, there were 150 applications from Ukrainian displaced households – 0.7% of the national total. 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 17,425 households that were assesed as homeless between April and September 2024, 575 (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 has not led to an increase in the proportion of households presenting to local authorities with only a local connection to another Scottish local authority.

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.