Thousands of Scots are living in unsuitable temporary homelessness accommodation, with many unable to access a kitchen or a fridge, according to a charity.
A survey carried out by Crisis in Scotland suggests nearly half of those living in hotels, hostels and B&Bs had no access to a kitchen, and a third had no access to a fridge. One woman told researchers the temporary accommodation she had been allocated was horrible, with “blood on the walls”, a curfew and no cooking facilities.
Read more: Charity declares National housing emergency
While rules state that families with children and pregnant women should wait no longer than seven days to be rehoused, others who find themselves homeless can end up trapped in unsuitable accommodation for months.
Crisis interviewed dozens of people stuck in temporary housing in the six council areas it claims have the worst record for leaving people in unsuitable temporary accommodation for long periods: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire, Highland, East Lothian and Midlothian.
One in five said the lack of access to cooking or storage facilities meant they regularly skipped meals. Nearly half of those surveyed had had no access to laundry facilities , 49 per cent complained of poor heating and draughts, nearly 40 per cent said there was damp or mould and many complained of possessions being stolen or feeling unsafe.A spokeswoman for Crisis in Scotland said: “No adult in Scotland should be forced to live like this while they wait for permanent housing.”
It said restrictions on everyday life were having a “devastating” impact on the state of mind of the homeless people surveyed, with 88 per cent saying their living conditions were making them depressed.
While use of temporary housing for families with children and pregnant women is meant to be restricted to a maximum of a week, some councils are struggling to achieve this according to housing charities. Meanwhile others are stuck for much longer. Official figures show 4730 households were placed in B&Bs last year but only around half of them left.
Read more: review chief, says care system 'manufacturing homelessness'
Crisis says besides causing misery for families, placement in poor quality accommodation is expensive, and claims councils could have saved £29m this year alone by using better temporary settings, such as supported lodgings. A report in August by The Ferret website found Scottish councils had spent £660m collectively over the last five years on temporary accommodation for homeless people.
The charity is calling for an immediate change in the law to extend the seven day limit on temporary accommodation to all homeless people. After a report from its own Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group made the same call, the Scottish Government has accepted this change in principal but have not said when it will happen.
Herald View: Let us restore compassion to the welfare system
John Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said; “Homeless people are being let down across Scotland. Lengthy stays in B&Bs or unsupported hostels or hotels are destructive, demoralising and stop people moving on with their lives.
“We know councils are working on rapid re-housing plans that will enable homeless people to be housed faster, but there must be a legal backstop which will restrict the use of unsuitable temporary housing to just seven days for everyone.”
Scottish Government Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “While temporary accommodation provides an important safety net in emergency situations, we want the time anyone has to spend there to be as short as possible.
“We are investing £6.5 million to support a Housing First approach, which focuses on getting a a person into settled accommodation first so they can then access support from the security of their own home.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel