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Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland: 2007-08
29/09/2008
Statistics on the Operation of the Homelessness Persons Legislation in Scotland: 2007-08 have been released today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.
The bulletin provides information about applications for assistance to local authorities under homelessness legislation covering the period up to March 31, 2008. It includes information on reasons for application, the characteristics of applicant households, assessments and outcomes; and on households in temporary accommodation.
The main points from the bulletin are:
Applications and applicant households
There were an estimated 56,609 applications to local authorities under the Homeless Persons legislation in 2007-08. This represents a decrease of 4.9 per cent compared to the 59,550 applications during 2006-07.
The majority of households applying were single-person households (60 per cent of applications in 2007-08). Single parents, predominantly women, accounted for the next largest group (24 per cent).
The main reasons for applying as homeless were household disputes or relationship breakdown (27 per cent of applications in 2007-08) and being asked to leave their current accommodation (25 per cent).
42 per cent of applicants in 2007-08 had been living with relatives or friends before applying, 35 per cent had been living in accommodation which they either rented or owned, 3 per cent had come from prison and 3 per cent had come from supported accommodation.
For those who had been living with family or friends the main contributing factors for loss of accommodation were external factors such as the landlord selling the property, harassment or antisocial behaviour by others, flood or fire - cited by 27 per cent - and lack of support from family or friends - cited by 15 per cent.
Of the 4,228 applications for homelessness assistance from owner occupiers, 26 per cent cited financial difficulties/ debt or unemployment as contributing to their loss of accommodation while 22 per cent cited external factors.
Just under a third (32 per cent) of those who had been renting cited external factors such as the landlord selling the property, harassment or antisocial behaviour by others, flood or fire as a contributing to their loss of accommodation while 15 per cent cited financial difficulties/debt or unemployment.
In 2007-08 some 6 per cent of applicants - an average of 282 applicants per month - slept rough the night before applying for assistance. The proportion of applicants sleeping rough the night before applying varied from around 15 per cent in Edinburgh and Aberdeen to below 1 per cent in North Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Dundee, South Lanarkshire and Midlothian.
36 per cent of applications were from households on councils' waiting lists. This varied widely between councils from 70 per cent in Aberdeenshire to around 10 per cent in South Ayrshire.
The percentage of homeless applications identified as repeat applications (i.e. where a previous application from the household had been closed less than 12 months before the current application) has fallen from 9.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 6.7 per cent in 2007-08.
Local authority assessment
At the time of this analysis, of the 56,609 applications in 2007-08, 40,299 had been assessed as homeless 14,633 were either not homeless or lost contact and 1,677 had not yet been assessed.
Of the 40,299 applications assessed as homeless, 32,111 (79.7 per cent) were assessed as priority. This was a 3.0 percentage points increase over 2006-07, which in turn was a 1.2 percentage points increase over 2005-06.
By 2007-08 single people aged between 25 and retirement were the largest priority group, their numbers having increased from a little over 5,000 in 2000-01 to over 9,000 in 2007-08.
The proportion of homeless households assessed as priority in 2007-08 varies widely between councils, from 96 per cent in West Dunbartonshire to under 70 per cent in Moray, Fife, Stirling, Aberdeen City, East Ayrshire, East Lothian and Shetland.
In 2007-08, 34 per cent of households were assessed as having one or more support needs. 12 per cent of homeless applicants required support because of a mental health issue, 11 per cent needed support on skills for independent living and 10 per cent required support because of alcohol dependency.
In 2007-08 the most common reasons for a priority assessment were that the household had dependent children (39 per cent of all priority assessments), a household member was vulnerable (16 per cent), the applicant household was fleeing domestic violence or abuse (14 per cent) or mental illness or personality disorder of a household member (12 per cent).
Action taken by local authorities
There were 51,476 applications actioned by local authorities during 2007-08. Of these 10,835 were cases in which the application had been withdrawn or contact lost with the applicant before an assessment could be made and a further 7,209 were cases where contact was lost before the council discharged its duty.
In 2007-08 17,447 households were offered a social rented tenancy of whom 15,598 (89 per cent) took up the offer. Temporary accommodation was offered to 4,289 households of whom 59 per cent took up the offer and a private rented tenancy was offered to 1,573 households of whom 99 per cent took up the offer.
The most common actions taken by councils to try to prevent homelessness in the 6,383 households who were either threatened with homelessness or were assessed as not homeless and whose cases were concluded in the period were:
- assistance in finding alternative accommodation, provided to 28 per cent of this group of households
- assessment of support needs, provided to 23 per cent
- independent financial, legal or housing advice, provided to 16 per cent
- basic housing support to manage finances or living alone, provided to 12 per cent
- assistance in dealing with landlord or mortgage provider, provided to 9 per cent
- assistance in claiming benefits, provided to 8 per cent
- use of a rent deposit/ guarantee scheme, provided to 6 per cent
- services such as counselling, mediation and befriending, provided to 5 per cent
- involvement of a social work/ health/ community care service, provided to 4 per cent
Households in temporary accommodation
At March 31, 2008 there were 9,518 households in temporary accommodation who had been placed there under the Homeless Persons legislation.
This represents an increase of 11 per cent compared to the situation at March 31, 2007. However, the inclusion by Glasgow for the first time of 542 previously asylum seeker households assessed as homeless overstates the underlying rate of increase in numbers in temporary accommodation. Adjusting for this gives an underlying rate of increase of 4.7 per cent between 2006-07 and 2007-08.
At March 31, 2008 there were 3,986 households with children or pregnant women in temporary accommodation.
At March 31, 2008, 64 per cent of households in temporary accommodation were in local authority or housing association accommodation, with a further 12 per cent in hostels and 17 per cent in bed and breakfast accommodation.
Households with children tend on the whole to be provided with local authority or housing association accommodation (87 per cent), with a minority (3 per cent) being placed in bed and breakfast accommodation.
At March 31, 2008, there were 118 households with children or pregnant women in bed and breakfast accommodation. This varied by local authority, with 18 local authorities having none or only one household with children in bed and breakfast and 4 local authorities having more than 10.
Councils with the largest number of households with children or pregnant women in bed & breakfast accommodation were Perth & Kinross (22), Highland (14) Moray (13) and Midlothian (12).
Implementation of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order
A total of 62 breaches of the Order were reported at 31 March 2008; an increase from 34 breaches reported at March 31, 2007.
Councils with the largest number of households housed in breach of the order were Perth & Kinross (11 households), Midlothian (10 households), Moray and Highland (9 households) and Falkirk (5 households).
The number of breaches of the Order represents 1.6 per cent of households with children or pregnant women in temporary accommodation at that point.
Official statistics are produced by professionally indepedent statistical staff.