Aberdeen has seen a significant rise in the number of people being left homeless, including children left without permanent homes.
New data showed a 20% rise in homelessness applications from 708 to 851 in the six-month period to September last year, compared to the same period in 2021.
An additional 25 children ended up in temporary accommodation in the year leading up to last September, equal to a 31% rise.
The worrying regional snapshot is contained in national figures showing record levels of homelessness across Scotland during a cost-of-living crisis.
Homeless charity Crisis said youngsters are being “robbed of a childhood”.
Figures from Aberdeen also showed there had been a 22% overall increase in the number of families who had been forced into temporary homes.
In Highland, the picture was more mixed. Over the whole year, there was a 21% rise in homelessness applications, but there were 40 fewer children without permanent accommodation.
SNP housing chief Shona Robison admitted the new figures are “unacceptable and concerning”.
Reasons for homelessness included being unable to pay a mortgage or landlord evictions.
Poorer families across Scotland are struggling to pay their energy bills, a rent freeze is in place to stop tenants from having to pay more to their landlords, and homeowners have been hit by rising interest rates.
‘Tip of the iceberg’
Citizens Advice warned the latest homelessness figures are the “tip of the iceberg”.
Spokesperson Aoife Deery said: “This is the horrifying impact of the cost of living crisis and the housing emergency. There is a serious risk these figures are the tip of the iceberg.
“Across the Citizens Advice network, we have seen that advice on actual homelessness has been growing as a proportion of housing advice for the past few months.
“Homelessness advice in December 2022 was up 34% from December 2021 as a proportion of all homelessness advice.
“We have also seen growing demand for online advice about rent increases, despite rent freeze legislation, and huge demand for online advice around mortgages.”
‘Support’
An Aberdeen Council spokesperson said: “In common with other areas of Scotland there has been an increase in homeless applications in Aberdeen through the first six months of this reporting year.
“We are working with multiagency partners across the city to support people experiencing homelessness and move them as quickly as possible into permanent housing.”
Ms Robison said: “The number of households, and particularly children, in temporary accommodation in some council areas is too high and we are firmly committed to reducing it.”
Conversation