Scotland’s overworked councils taking nine months to house homeless

Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie has today warned that Scotland’s local councils are overstretched as he revealed that the average time for a homeless person to be assessed and found a residence has increased to nine months.

Freedom of information requests published by the Scottish Government reveal that:

• The average number of days from assessment to closure “for applications assessed as unintentionally homeless or threatened with homelessness where contact was maintained and with the outcome in a settled accommodation in Scotland” has risen from 240 days in 2018/19 to 270 days in 2022/23.
• The average number of days has increased in 19 local authorities over the last five years.
• The longest average wait last year was 699 days in Edinburgh, followed by 591 days in Stirling and 550 days in Midlothian.
• Average waits have increased despite the number of people being assessed and housed barely increasing (20,505 in 2018/29 to 20,860 in 2022/23)

Commenting on the figures, Mr Rennie said:

“Ministers have completely failed to tackle the housing crisis. The SNP have axed a third from the housing budget, presided over record high levels of homelessness and let the number of affordable housing approvals fall to its lowest level for more than a decade.

“When people are in crisis, they need a roof over their heads if they are to have a hope of rebuilding.

“These figures show that overstretched councils are finding it harder and harder to get people into accommodation.

“Liberal Democrats are committed to tackling these housing failures head-on. We need a new National Housing Plan for Scotland that can stand up to the housing emergency, get more homes built and give people a home to call their own. We also want to see a budget that properly funds councils with a multi year settlement so that they can plan and invest for the future.”