Scottish Housing Market Review: Q2 2023

9. Homelessness

Data to 30 September 2022 shows that there were 9,550 homelessness applications between July and September 2022, which now marginally exceed pre-pandemic levels (9,475 in Q1 2020). The number of households assessed as homeless has also been rising gradually over the last few quarters – 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 is 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.

Source: Scottish Government

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.