- Published
The number of people living in temporary homeless housing in Scotland has risen to another record high, according to the latest figures, external.
More than 19,000 homeless households were being accommodated by local authorities by March - a 10% increase on the previous year.
The number of children living in temporary accommodation also reached a record high, rising by 5% to 10,715.
And the number of open cases - people stuck in the system waiting to be housed - also increased by 10% to nearly 35,000.
The total number of homeless applications rose slightly, by 197 to 41,443, and a total of 35,002 households were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness - an increase of 346 from 2024-25.
There was a 20% rise in the numbers reported to have been rough sleeping the night before their homeless application, from 2,464 to 2,949.
The numbers saying they had slept rough in the previous three months increased from 3,579 to 4,115.
Scott Crean has been homeless for the last year - and since Christmas has been staying in a hotel room in Glasgow.
The 37-year-old is among a record number people stuck in temporary accommodation across both Glasgow and Scotland as a whole.
Scott says he has been "in limbo" after being made redundant from his job at a charity shop and then made homeless after a family breakdown – all within the space of a few weeks last year.
"It's as if I'm stuck in a time I can't get out of... It's the waiting game that I can't stand," he said.
Scott's hotel room near the city's Trongate is a basic room with a queen-sized bed, sink and small shower room.
His clothes and personal effects are dotted round the cramped space, which is paid straight from his Universal Credit.
"Granted, it's nice... but I want my own home. The idea of living in a hotel doesn't live up to the hype," he said.
"At the end of the day, it's not somewhere I can decorate or call my own. It's living out of a suitcase. I don't feel comfortable here.
"Even through I've got a roof over my head, I want to be in my own home, paying my own rent, paying my electricity, paying my way."
Scott said he accepted an offer of a home in the Sandyhills area two weeks ago, but had not yet been told when he could view the property.
"It's frustrating, needing an answer and not getting it. Doesn't matter how many times you email or call, the council won't get back to you.
"At the same time, I count myself lucky that I have this place."
Scott also volunteers at a nearby shelter run by Homeless Project Scotland, which is itself under threat of closure due to a rise in crime near its premises.
Three years ago, Glasgow City Council declared a housing emergency.
It followed the example set by Edinburgh, where a housing shortage saw even worse pressure on homelessness services and temporary accommodation.
Since 2023, the strain on housing services in Scotland's biggest city has steadily grown.
Glasgow recorded its highest ever total of households in temporary homeless accommodation in March this year.
The figure of 4,890 included a record number of children - 3,350.
While the number of new applications to be made homeless fell, the number of open cases, where people are stuck in the system waiting to be housed, also hit a record high at 7,144.
Samantha Lyle has been employed by the city's health and social care partnership as a social care worker for five years.
She works within its enhanced outreach support team, and said they were "absolutely inundated" with demand.
We met her at the Simon Community Hub in Argyle Street, a one-stop-shop for homelessness and addiction support run by the charity and partly funded by the local authorities.
There was a small queue of homeless applicants, some of whom were from overseas.
"I think with leave to remain and the refugees, the hub is a focal point so we could have hundreds through the doors," said Lyle.
"But I think in general terms the homelessness services are extremely busy, a lot busier... Case loads are extremely high and there are a lot more complexities with those presenting as homeless."
Her job is also about problem-solving. In one of the hub's booths, a woman discussed her situation with Lyle.
The woman, who has mental health problems and was living in Edinburgh, was given a tenancy in Glasgow in January - but something has gone wrong.
"She's come in, basically saying that men are coming in and threatening her," Lyle said.
"They are banging on her door, assaulting her, entering her flat without her permission.
"This is what we could call 'cuckooing' - the tenancy or the flat has been overrun by unknown individuals for many reasons.
"I have real concerns."
Lyle said that a lot of people the service worked with could not maintain a tenancy or independent living.
"For us, a lot of it is down to a lack of services that mean we'd be able to house people with complex needs," she said.
Ricky Bell, the new leader of Glasgow City Council, said they needed to "start acting as though this is an emergency - and that means doing things slightly differently".
During his campaign to run the council, Bell said he believed Glasgow was "carrying the burden" of the UK's policy on housing refugees.
In 2023, council officers told the BBC that Glasgow's housing emergency had been exacerbated by attempts by the Home Office to clear the backlog of people awaiting asylum decisions.
Some applications were streamlined, meaning a higher number of claimants were given leave to remain.
They were asked to leave their Home Office-provided accommodation and presented to local homelessness services.
Between April and September 2025, almost half of Glasgow's homeless applications came from those with refugee or leave to remain status.
'We don't have the infrastructure'
"That's causing a real problem for us in terms of how we cope with that significant increase in the volume of people that are coming," said Bell.
"We don't have the infrastructure. We don't have enough ability to put these people in temporary accommodation.
"We don't have enough houses to give them all permanent houses."
He wants the UK government to pause its asylum dispersal scheme to allow the city "to be able to refocus itself".
"I think we were coping relatively well with the homeless people, the volumes of homeless people that were coming through before the UK government changed that there," he added.
In 2022, the Scottish parliament voted to abandon the local connection rule, external for homelessness applicants.
While it didn't apply to refugees, it meant that if someone with no links to Glasgow applied for homelessness support in the city, the council could refer them back to some other part of Scotland where they did have connections - like work or family history.
But Bell said the policy needed a rethink.
"We are now seeing people coming from the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland to Glasgow because the legislation is more sympathetic to people here and it treats them better," he said.
"I've always been one of these people who said that governments, whether it's local government or national government or the UK government, should stick to their lane.
"What I'm going to say to them is if you want to have that policy you have to fund it and at the moment they're not doing that properly. That's just unsustainable."
He said Glasgow could not be responsible for the vast majority of the homeless problem in Scotland without being funded to do that.
'Acute pressures'
The Scottish government said the "acute pressures" facing Glasgow City Council had been "significantly exacerbated" by the UK government's handling of the situation.
A spokesperson said: "We have repeatedly called on the UK government to properly fund local authorities facing these additional pressures and to address the impact Home Office policies are having on local housing and homelessness systems."
They added Glasgow City Council was being provided with more than £123m through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, alongside additional support for the resettlement of refugees.
Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the government was taking "decisive action" to tackle homelessness and increase the supply of affordable homes.
"However, we recognise the latest 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."
The Scottish government said it had committed to investing up to £4.9bn over the next four years to support the delivery of around 36,000 affordable homes across the country.
The UK government said it was closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into alternative accommodation, including former military sites.
A spokesperson said: "This is helping to ease the burden on local communities and taxpayers, with asylum costs down by £1bn since the general election.
"As we progress with this work, we will fairly house asylum seekers across the country.
"That means engaging with local authorities to reduce the impact on communities including around the transition from asylum accommodation."
