The First Minister has been told to "listen and act" as council officers warned of a general systemic failure in coping with the homeless in Scotland with more than three in four local authorities unable to meet their legal duties for putting a roof over people's heads.

A red flag assessment carried out by the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) shows that some 25 of Scotland's 32 local authorities are breaching the law in dealing with the homeless as the crisis deepens.

Council officers have warned ministers that the homes calamity is only going to get worse, despite the Scottish Government's symbolic housing emergency proclamation in mid-May.

The ALACHO study covering 96 officers in all of Scotland's local authorities found that just three councils are managing to cope with the current situation with no obvious risk of it getting worse.

It shows what ALACHO described as a "general deterioration" in confidence to meet statutory obligations to deal with homelessness in a survey carried out between June 6 and 28 a month after the Scottish Government's national housing emergency declaration.

The ALACHO traffic light system set out for the study found that 25 (78%) of the 32 Scottish councils had registered a red flag on at least one of three key aspects of their services in June meaning they were "struggling to cope" and had "regular statutory breaches". In November, last year, there were 19 and in November, 2021, there were just five.

ALACHO warned: "The sector appears to have moved from systemic failure across a small number of councils mainly in the central belt to a more general failure in service delivery across much of Scotland. This is expressed most clearly in the number of statutory breaches reported and less obviously, but of more concern, in the harm experienced by those caught in the system."

50 Scottish children are made homeless every day

The survey found that 15 out of the 32 councils (46.9%) assessed all three key aspects of their service as “red”. In November, last year there were 12 and in November 2021 there were just two.

The current triple red flag authorities are Aberdeen, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Highland, Orkney, Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian.

Only Aberdeenshire, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, covering the Western Isles, and Moray said it was confident of meeting all its duties all the time.

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The three key aspects surveyed involved the legal obligation to offer temporary accommodation when they assess a person or household as unintentionally homeless, the ability to meet the statutory requirement to not place the homeless in 'unsuitable' homes and the ability to supply permanent lets.

ALACHO said that the survey demonstrated "continuing evidence" of rising number of people presenting as homeless, record numbers in temporary accommodation, "widespread" statutory breaches of duties to homeless and rising waiting times for those in need of a home.

"As things stand it is likely that the number of households in temporary accommodation and the number of open cases will continue to rise for the foreseeable future," warned the representative organisation for senior housing and homelessness professionals working in Scotland’s councils and health and social care partnerships."

Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland (Image: Contributed)

Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, described failure to fulfil legal duties was "deplorable" and that the ALACHO study revealed the "horrifying reality of Scotland’s housing emergency and show that councils simply don’t have the tools they need to tackle it".

She added: “At a time when systemic failure is evident... we urgently need a different response from the Scottish Government. Yet despite the Scottish Government declaring a housing emergency back in May, there has been no urgent action from Ministers to address this worsening situation.

“It’s time for the First Minister and his Government to listen and act on these continuously ringing alarm bells. The housing emergency will not get better on its own."

Councils across Scotland have broken the law that prevents the homeless including children and pregnant mothers being placed in unfit housing more than 15000 times over five years.

Some 24 out of Scotland's 32 local authorities have admitted they have breached the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO) since 2019 which is legally binding and ensures that people have access to decent living accommodation. In 2019 there were just 10.

The breach of the rules over the use of temporary accommodation based on details gathered from Scotland's 32 local authorities show that the rate of breaches has risen over fivefold since new rules came in in 2020.

The Herald's charter for action over the housing emergency (Image: NQ)

The Herald investigation into the housing scandal has revealed that every day 50 Scots children are being hit by homelessness while the numbers languishing in halfway house temporary accommodation because they cannot be found settled homes has more than trebled in 20 years.

Some 18,400 children are included among the 64,000 Scots within families who have been seeking homelessness support from councils last year.

The number of children in homeless families who are living in halfway house temporary accommodation because of a lack of settled permanent homes has more than trebled in the past 20 years.

Meanwhile the Scottish Government's affordable homes budget, aimed at cutting homelessness and avoid the use of temporary accommodation such as B&Bs has taken a cumulative hit of over £280m over the past three years without taking inflation into account - based against the 2021/22 allocation of £779.776m - despite a pledge by outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf of a £80m uplift for affordable housing over the next two years.

Some ten local authorities have declared a housing emergency declaration.

Argyll and Bute were first to make its declaration in June, 2023, followed by Edinburgh, Glasgow, Fife, West Dunbartonshire, Scottish Borders, West Lothian, South Lanarkshire, Angus and Dumfries and Galloway.

The ALACHO survey found that Scottish Borders had moved from 'amber' on all three key elements of the homelessness service in November meaning its head was above water but only just, to 'red' now.

It said that in the past six months pressures on most homelessness services have "continued to grow".

Councils have spent over £720m of public money on placing the homeless in temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfasts and hotels over the last five years because of a housing shortage.

It was running at over £190m in 2023, a rise of nearly £30m (18%) from the previous year. In 2019 the cost was at just over £100m.

Earlier this month The Herald launched a campaign through a seven-point charter to help end Scotland's housing emergency including a call to change the law so thousands of Scots found to be at risk of homelessness every year get support earlier to stay in their homes.

The housing charter includes a call for the required funds to urgently increase the building of affordable homes so people can move more rapidly out of homelessness and into settled accommodation.

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “Tackling the current housing emergency requires a joint approach between the Scottish and UK governments and local authorities. I have been meeting with Housing Convenors across the country since last summer to discuss the housing pressures each area is facing and to consider what we can do with the levers and resources at our disposal.

“We are making available record funding of more than £14 billion to councils in 2024-25 to deliver a range of services, including homelessness services – a real-terms increase of 4.3% compared with the previous year.

“Alongside measures to prevent homelessness, increasing housing stock is key to reducing the use of temporary accommodation. Since 2007, we have supported the delivery of more than 131,000 affordable homes, over 93,000 of those being for social rent and we will invest nearly £600 million in affordable housing in 2024-25.

“Where the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) identifies non-compliance with the Unsuitable Accommodation Order in a local authority, an engagement plan will be published setting out what the social landlord needs to do and what the SHR will do. The SHR expects the local authority to become compliant on its own given the responsibility to do so lies with the local authority.”