Homelessness in Scotland: 2018 to 2019 – equalities breakdown

Assessments 

(Tables 8 to 10)

Repeat homelessness

The percentage of homeless assessments identified as repeat cases (i.e. where a previous application from the household had been closed less than 12 months before the current assessment^[10]) was 5.8% across Scotland in 2018/19. Older applicants were less likely to be repeat applicants, with 1.5% of those aged 65 or over assessed as repeat applicants compared to to 5.8% for all assessments. 6.8% of applicants aged 35-49 were assessed as repeat homeless.

Older applicants are less likely to be repeat homeless

Single men were were particularly likely to be repeat applicants, with 8.4% assessed as repeat homeless, compared to the least likely household type to be a repeat case, which was Other with children, where less than 1% of applications were repeat cases. However it should be noted that this will partly be due to the definition of repeat homelessness and the requirement that the adults and family composition need to be the same in both applications.

Those applicants of mixed or multiple ethnic groups are most likely (6.7%) to have a repeat homelessness application and those of White Irish and White Polish ethnicity are least likely to make a repeat homelessness application (0% and 1.2% respectively).  

Support needs of homeless households

Across Scotland 49% of cases assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness were identified as having a support need, although the nature of the support need varies across age groups. 58% of applicants age 16-17 were assessed as having a support need, of which ‘basic housing management / independent living skills’ was the most common (44% of assessments). 

For applicants age 65 or older 55% were assessed as having a support need, of which a physical disability (25% of cases) or a medical condition (30%) were most common. A mental health problem was most common among those age 35-49 (27% of assessments), and similarly for drug or alcohol dependency (17%).

Single female households were most likely to be assessed as having at least one  support need (57%), with a mental health problem identified in 31% of cases. This compares to 53% of single male households assessed as having at least one support need, with a mental health problem identified in 26% of cases. Couples with children were the least likely to have a support need identified, with just a third of this household type having at least one support need. 

Support needs were more likely to be identified for applicants of White Scottish (51%), White British (52%) and Not known or refused (55%) ethnicity , than for other ethnic groups. Less than a quarter (24%) of applicants of African ethnicity had a support need identified and proportions of households of other ethnicities with a support need identified varied between 26% and 40%.