Scotland's housing regulator has urged ministers to take urgent action over what they have now declared as a "systemic failure" in dealing with a homelessness crisis in Scotland saying that breaches of the law by councils are now a "regular occurrence".

The body warned ministers in February that there was an "emerging risk of systemic failure" in local authority homelessness services as some councils were finding it "increasingly difficult" to deal with the challenges of providing services for those who are homeless and meet their legal duties.

And it said that tackling the challenges of providing services for those who are homeless and meeting statutory duties may need to be a "principal priority" for the coming period for the Scottish Government, councils and others working to meet the needs of people who are homeless.

Now the Scottish Housing Regulator, whose statutory objective is to safeguard and promote the interests of 600,000 tenants who live in homes provided by social landlords, 120,000 property owners and the tens of thousands who experience homelessness, says the risk has become a reality.

It says that actions to deal with it were beyond their regulatory powers and that urgent action was required from ministers.

"It is clear that the demands on some councils now exceed their capacity to respond and in others, it soon will; given this, we are of the view that there is systemic failure in the services provided to people who are homeless by some councils and that there is a heightened risk in other councils," the regulator has warned.

READ MORE: Winter deaths warning as 76,000 older Scots say they have no savings

There were further concerns that its five year projections show "significant reductions" in the number of registered landlords in the social housing sector - which cater for the poorest and most vulnerable in the country - building new homes and in the numbers being constructed.

Social landlords in Scotland are expected to build 4,500 fewer affordable homes over the next five years as they seek to make £15m in spending cuts.

The Scottish Tenants Organisation said: "The Scottish Government has to be condemned for ignoring the housing and homeless emergency in Scotland especially when the impartial regulator states that there is systemic failure in the whole system which means that ministers will have blood on their hands this winter as homeless people suffer and die on our streets."

The regulator warning emerged as a red flag assessment carried out by the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) found that more than half of Scotland's 32 councils have admitted they are failing to meet legal requirements to deal with the homelessness crisis in Scotland.

Councils have a statutory obligation to offer temporary accommodation when they assess a person or household as unintentionally homeless.

But in Glasgow, hundreds classed as homeless were turned away in the first nine months of this year despite the legal duty.

Some 518 of the 629 people who were not immediately able to be housed after being classed as homeless in Scotland are in Glasgow.

The city council has been facing court action over the failures, having recorded just three instances of homeless people seeking emergency accommodation being turned away in the previous two years - 2021 and 2022.

The Herald: Homelessness

Councils have also breached the law that prevents the homeless from being placed in 'unsuitable' temporary accommodation more than 11,000 times over a year-and-a-half - with the average rising from nearly 540 per month last year to around 800-a-month so far this year.

The ALACHO study which lays bare the state of the nation in dealing with the homeless, expressed concern that the Scottish Government had not declared a housing emergency.

The representative body for local authority housing in Scotland, in research carried out in November, said that the results show "widespread deterioration since May this year and a significant reduction in confidence when compared with the most challenging periods during the pandemic".

A traffic light system set out for the study found that 19 out of the 32 Scottish councils had registered a red flag on at least one of three key aspects of their services meaning they were "struggling to cope with regular statutory breaches". In November 2021 there were just five.

Some 12 out of the 32 councils (37.5%) assessed all key aspects of their service as “red”. In November 2021, there were just two.

The housing regulator's warning emerged before the Scottish Government moved to cut the housing budget by more than £200m next year under spending plans.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFH) said the cut to the affordable housebuilding programme will have ‘devastating’ consequences and warned that the Scottish Government’s target of building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 would be missed as a result.

Official figures show that more children than ever are homeless and living in temporary accommodation for the homeless in Scotland.

As of March this year, 9,595 youngsters were in the system - the highest since Scottish government records began in 2002.

In total, there were 29,652 open homelessness cases in March, which was a 15% rise on last year.

Homelessness applications increased by 9% in 2022-23.

In an analysis, seen by the Herald, the regulator said that in ongoing engagement with councils about their delivery of services for people who are homeless they have found that breaches of statutory duties are now a "regular occurrence" in some councils.

The Herald: The threat of homelessness is rising

The regulator said that some councils now regularly acknowledge that they are not able to fully meet all of their statutory duties to people who are homeless and are planning service delivery "with the assumption that they will not be able to fully meet all of these duties all of the time".

In February, it emphasised that there were actions councils can take to respond to the current challenges in homelessness and said that they should "continue best efforts to meet their statutory obligatons".

Now the regulator said it will engage with councils to promote improvement "where this is possible".

The body added: "However, systemic failure requires a systemic intervention that is beyond our regulatory powers.

"We are aware that the Scottish Government has initiated work to bring forward measures to respond to the challenges councils are now experiencing. We believe that added urgency is now needed in this work. "We are ready to work with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders to identify and implement actions that will address the acute issues in temporary and permanent accommodation for people who are homeless."

The regulator said that they were aware of "potential significant additional demand" for homelessness services resulting from the Home Office’s move to accelerate the clearance of a backlog of asylum claims.

Glasgow declared a symbolic housing emergency in the wake of that, following declarations by Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute.

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator of the Scottish Tenants Organisation added: "It is to ministers' everlasting shame this Christmas that they have abandoned the homeless men, women and children of Scotland."

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “Scotland is facing the most challenging budget settlement since devolution because of sustained high inflation and a UK Government autumn statement that failed to deliver the investment needed in Scotland's public services.

“We will invest £556 million in affordable housing next year and continue to work with partners to increase the delivery of more affordable homes, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting acquisitions of existing properties. We will also work with the financial community to attract private sector investment and help deliver more homes.

"The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in a 9.8% real terms cut in our capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28. This alongside construction supply chain issues and labour shortages driven by Brexit, and high inflation last year means we cannot deliver on all our capital projects within the funding available. We will bring forward to 2024 a review of our target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 with a focus on the delivery timeline.”