Homelessness reaches new heights

Many thousands are without proper homes

The number of people without a permanent roof over their heads in Scotland is at an all time high, according to homeless charity Shelter.

Within the last year, 82,000 people approached their local authority pleading for help.

Shelter said those "shocking statistics" indicated that the time was now right for the Scottish Executive to commit serious funding to help alleviate the problem.

The homeless end up begging

Director Liz Nicholson said: "It has taken a long time to get to this level of homelessness and it is going to take a long time to go back to not having any homelessness in Scotland.

"We don't want a quick fix, we want a long-term action plan that is going to focus on housing and support for many people who are going to need support to get off the streets."

But Social Justice Minister Jackie Baillie said new legislation was being planned which would give the homeless new rights.

She said the housing bill would "place a duty on local authorities to come up with strategies not just to alleviate homelessness, but to prevent it occurring in the first place."

A lot of people don't bother to approach their local authority because they know there is very little that their local authority will do for them them

Liz Nicholson, Shelter director

Shelter's figures showed a rise in the number of people without proper accommodation for the fifth year running.

The organisation said homeless applications have increased by 88% in the last 10 years.

It warned that the situation was now one of "catastrophic" proportions.

In East Renfrewshire alone, demand has risen by 76% in the past year.

But the trend has reversed in some areas, with 12 out of 32 local authorities reporting a fall in demand for housing.

Permanent solution'

Ms Nicholson said she believed that Shelter's figures, which were based on applications to councils, underestimated the problem.

"A lot of people don't bother to approach their local authority because they know there is very little that their local authority will do for them," she said.

Shelter said if ministers were serious about finding a permanent solution to homelessness, they should put their hands in their pockets.

Many people had been homeless in Scotland

But an executive spokeswoman said the government had committed £40m to homelessness through a number of different projects, including increasing refuge spaces for women suffering domestic violence.

Ms Baillie said the trend of increasing homelessness had been slowed down, and the task was now to reverse it.

"Our priority is to make sure that we have the law changed to ensure that we offer protection for homeless people, that accommodation and services are in place so we can make appropriate provision, and ultimately to address the underlying causes of homelessness," she told BBC Good Morning Scotland.

She said the new legislation would force councils to give everyone who was made homeless access to temporary accommodation, advice and assistance.