A review of government policies which impact on
homelessness by Crisis and NPI
41,000 households were officially recognised as newly homeless in Scotland in 2006/07.
Over the period from 2000/01 to 2003/04, there was a noticeable increase in the number of households officially recognised as newly homeless, from 30,000 in 1996/97 to 43,000 in 2003/04. Since then, numbers have been stable.
Two-fifths of newly homeless households are single person households aged 25 or over without dependent children. A further quarter are single person households aged under 25 without dependent children and another quarter are lone parents. Very few (only one in ten) are couples.
The rise in officially recognised homelessness broadly coincided with the introduction of the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act and the 2003 Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act which created a recent framework which is much more generous towards homeless people without dependent children than before.
Page last modified on 25/06/2008 at 17:26