Scottish homelessness figures fall by 20 per cent

Published on Tuesday 14 February 2012 16:17

The number of people being made homeless in Scotland fell last year, new figures have revealed.

Scottish Government statistics showed there were 23,796 homeless applications to local authorities between April and September 2011, a 20 per cent decrease compared with the same period the previous year.

Reductions were recorded in 28 of Scotland’s 32 councils, with Aberdeen and the Borders both recording a fall of 56 per cent.

The figure represents the lowest number of applications in a decade.

The government is working towards a homelessness target to ensure that by the end of 2012 all unintentionally homeless people will be entitled to settled accommodation.

Housing minister Keith Brown said: “These encouraging statistics show that we are within touching distance of meeting the 2012 homelessness target.

“The dramatic decrease in applications is likely to be a consequence of changes in how local authorities help households who approach them for assistance.”

Charity Shelter Scotland welcomed the figures.

Director Graeme Brown said: “A 20 per cent reduction in homeless applications compared to this time last year is great news and I congratulate the majority of local authorities across Scotland who have made huge progress on homelessness.

“This success should not blind us to the scale of Scotland’s ongoing housing crisis.

“Nearly 50,000 people still presented as homeless in the last 12 months, so this progress needs to be a catalyst for even greater change.”

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allymax

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:22 PM

#2, yeh, I'm wary of these figures too. While polls and stat's are rolled out all the time, how reliable, and by which 'weighting' are they susceptible to?? A simple category like 'unintentional homeless' could knock nearly 50% of Scotland's stat's of the 'official' 'books'. I would like to see the seasonally adjusted data for these stat's; Keith?

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Tartancult

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:36 PM

Surely that 20% reduction is simply that these homeless now call themselves "occupiers" - as in Occupy (insert city here)?

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Mark Bishop

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:30 PM

It's great that the figures have fallen and people are being housed. I see that the picture depicts someone on the street begging. Just to add a little realism into this, I went to work on the bus into Edinburgh and there was a man dressed in office clothes with a briefcase sitting in front of me. At lunchtime, I saw the same man dressed extremely scruffily with dirt on his face, sitting on the pavement begging. He was on the bus home, all cleaned up and looking business like. I wondered if he had lost his job and couldn't tell his wife. Or maybe this WAS his work. I still don't know. What about the organised gangs of beggars who are dropped off in the smaller towns by van in the mornings and picked up in the evenings by the same van? Again I would love to know if these people are classed as homeless but live in homes? Kudos, however, to the sellers of the Big Issue. They are actually working. However, the shoppers who might buy the magazine during the day are not likely to be working themselves so it is difficult to give money for the magazine.

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