Close to 3,000 children in Glasgow are homeless, new figures reveal, as numbers continue to rise amid the housing crisis.

There are 2,832 children living in temporary accommodation in the city, up from 2,765 in April.

The figures, which cover up to June, show a total of 7,371 people are in temporary accommodation, a rise of 106 from April.

Figures released to the Daily Record also show that £27m has been spent on private hotels and bed and breakfasts to house the homeless.

Labour MSP Mark Griffin told the newspaper: "Scotland is in the grips of a devastating housing emergency – from soaring rents to unaffordable mortgages to record levels of homelessness.

“Far from taking the urgent action needed to fix this crisis, the SNP has fuelled it.


Read More:


“While housebuilding plummets once again, the SNP is ploughing ahead with its disastrous plans to slash funding for affordable housing."

Sean Clerkin, a housing campaigner who unearthed the figures, said: “The authorities have made a political choice to condemn a generation of children to destitution and absolute poverty that will inflict physical and mental ill health on them.

“We are witnessing the quiet violence of the institutions of Scotland at local and national level through inaction, indifference and slow decay cutting homeless services and national housing budgets with impunity while their mouthpiece politicians shame us by hiding behind false platitudes that mean nothing.

“This all has to change immediately with the restoration of housing and homeless service budgets allied to billions of pounds of additional funds being given to build tens of thousands of new social rented homes.”

A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health and Social Care Partnership said: “It’s not an insignificant feat that we are providing emergency and temporary accommodation to more than 7000 people when it is well documented that the housing system in Glasgow is experiencing significant pressure.

“There is no council housing in Glasgow, and we rely on Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) who have high demands in terms of housing need to meet, as well as in relation to homelessness.

“We work well with these RSLs, and they are committed to providing us with accommodation but currently demand outstrips availability which means people are spending longer in emergency and temporary accommodation than any of us would want.

“We declared a housing emergency last year due to the cumulative impact of pressures on the city in relation to housing and homelessness and expanded our use of bed and breakfast in an attempt to meet the current demands for homelessness assistance and avoid people having to sleep rough.”