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Publication - Progress report

Scottish Housing Market Review Q1 2023

Published
31 March 2023
Directorate
Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice Directorate, +1 more … Local Government and Housing Directorate
Topic
Housing, Programme for Government
ISBN
9781805257073

Scottish housing market bulletins collating a range of statistics on house prices, housing market activity, cost and availability of finance and repossessions.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

8. Homelessness

As illustrated in Chart 8.1, 2021/22 saw 35,230 homelessness applications in Scotland, an annual increase of 2.8% (+944), but this remains below the pre-pandemic level of 37,060 in 2019/20. 28,882 households were assessed as being homeless (including those threatened with homelessness), an increase relative to 2020/21 of 3.0% (+840) but again below pre-pandemic levels of 31,612. The 28,882 households assessed as being homeless included 32,592 adults and 14,372 children. There were 13,945 households in offered temporary accommodation as at 31 March 2022, an annual increase of 4.4% (+586).

On a per capita basis, West Dunbartonshire has the highest number of households assessed as homeless per 100,000 population (aged 16+) in 2021/22, at 1,404. This compares to a Scottish average of 632.

Chart 8.1 Homelessness in Scotland to 31 March 2022 (Annual)
the annual amount of homelessness in Scotland. In particular, the number of homelessness applications, those who are assessed as homeless (including those threatened with homelessness) and the number of people in temporary accommodation each year. This is shown from 2002-2003 to 2021-2022.

Source: Scottish Government

More recent data to 30 September 2022 shows that the number of homelessness applications have increased to 9,550 over the quarter and now marginally exceed pre-pandemic levels (9,475 over Q1 2020). The number of households assessed as homeless has also risen gradually to 7,826 in the latest quarter but remains below pre-pandemic levels, where there were 7,972 households assessed as homeless in Q1 2020. The number of households in temporary accommodation continued to rise and equals 14,458 at 30 September 2022. These increases are thought to be a result of the backlog of cases that built up during COVID-19 and the ongoing cost and supply issues for materials and lack of tradespeople which are required to provide settled accommodation.

Please note that the number of homelessness applications and those assessed as homeless are a flow variable (i.e. the number shown is the number of homelessness applications and the number of households assessed as homeless over the quarter). On the other hand, the temporary accommodation figures shown are a stock variable, which means there were 14,458 households in temporary accommodation as at 30 September 2022.

Chart 8.2 Homelessness in Scotland to September 2022 (Quarterly)
quarterly homelessness data in Scotland. In particular, the number of homelessness applications, those who are assessed as homeless (including those threatened with homelessness) and the number of people in temporary accommodation. This is shown from Q2 2019 to Q3 2022.

Source: Scottish Government

Contact

Email: William.Ellison@gov.scot

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