Number of children in temporary accommodation reaches record high

The number of children living in temporary accommodation has reached a new record high, new Scottish Government figures show.

A total of 19,004 households were in temporary housing at the end of March, up 10 per cent on the previous year.

The number of children in this kind of accommodation went up by five per cent to 10,715, marking the highest number on record.

The details form part of new homelessness statistics which show significant progress is still to be made on tackling the issue.

Across the country 41,443 homelessness applications were made, an increase of 197 cases compared with the previous year.

The number of households reporting rough sleeping the night before making the application has also increased, while the average time spent in temporary accommodation for cases that closed in 2025-26 fell by three days to 237 days.

More than 80 per cent of households who were assessed as being unintentionally homeless secured settled accommodation during the period, which is the same as in the year before.

Most of those assessed as being homeless or threatened with homelessness were single, white and aged 25-49. Half of all cases had at least one support need.

The severity of the problem varied across the country, with 13 councils experiencing an increase in applications and 19 seeing a decrease.

There was a 22 per cent increase in Aberdeen City and a 14 per cent rise in Edinburgh, while cases fell by five per cent in Glasgow, which saw the largest concentration of applications from those with leave to remain or refugee status, or Ukrainian nationality.

Such cases amounted to 44 per cent of all applications in Glasgow, while in Edinburgh the figure was 37 per cent and in Aberdeen it was 29 per cent.

Scottish Labour housing spokesperson Mark Griffin said: “These shameful figures demand urgent action from all of us across the Scottish Parliament.

“Once again a record number of children in Scotland are stuck in temporary accommodation without the safe, secure home they deserve.

“Thousands of Scots are being failed in a time of crisis and communities are being put under huge pressure.”

Matt Hamill of Homeless Network Scotland said the “deeply disturbing figures paint a stark picture” of a crisis that “risks becoming the new normal”. He said: “One year on from the launch of the Scottish Government’s Housing Emergency Action plan it is clear that the situation has become even worse.

“Behind these figures are people and families living with the uncertainty of homelessness or the threat of homelessness, with lives on hold in the limbo of temporary accommodation, or facing a night sleeping rough on the streets.

“Scotland has some of the strongest rights around homelessness in the world but with today’s figures showing over 35,000 households assessed as homeless, record numbers of children in temporary accommodation and soaring rates of rough sleeping, it is clear these rights are not translating into protections on the ground in the way they should. With an appalling 21,800 cases of people not being offered temporary accommodation over the last year, it is also clear that in many cases people's legal rights are not enforceable at all.”

Housing secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the homelessness figures “remain far too high”. She said: “We are determined to reduce homeless rates and are shifting our approach from crisis management to prevention and rapid rehousing. Our £50m Homelessness Prevention Fund, £2m Fund to Leave scheme for victims of abuse and delivery of 1,500 Housing First tenancies all look to support people before they reach crisis point.

“We will continue to work with third sector organisations to aid early intervention, including our recent £2m investment for Social Bite’s work to end homelessness.

“With homelessness levels remaining persistently high across the UK, I am urging the UK government to act immediately in the forthcoming budget by scrapping the freeze on Local Housing Allowance and providing local governments with further funding to address repeated Home Office policy failures.

“We will continue to do everything we can to tackle homelessness with the powers we have, including investing a record £4.9bn for affordable homes over the next four years. This will enable us to build on our success of delivering 146,000 affordable homes since 2007. Between 2007 and 2025, Scotland’s affordable housing supply per head of population was, on average, 45 per cent higher than in England and 69 per cent higher than in Wales.”