The charity Shelter calls it a badge of shame and it would be hard to think of a more accurate description. According to the the Scottish Government's latest homelessness statistics, more than 5000 children in Scotland are living in temporary accommodation. Not only is that a shocking figure in itself, it represents a 15 per rise increase on last year. This Christmas, there will be 626 more homeless children in Scotland than there were 12 months ago.
The effects on the children involved are stark. Firstly, their mental and physical health can be affected, but homelessness also badly impacts on the children's long-term prospects – we know for example that children living in temporary accommodation are much more likely to miss school, with homeless children missing on average 55 school days every year.
The explanation for the problem is relatively simple: there has been a continuing squeeze on wages and welfare at the same time as property prices and rents are rising. There has also been zero progress on addressing the most pressing problem in housing today: the lack of affordable homes.
On the issue of wages and welfare, there is no sign of improvement – in fact, the situation appears to be going into reverse. New figures show there has been an increase in the number of Scots being paid less than the living wage of £7.85 an hour. In total, 441,000 Scots fall below that threshold.
With tax credits also under attack and average wages frozen or moving glacially at best, this means it is all the more important that the lack of affordable housing is tackled urgently. At the general election, the SNP promised to support the development of new affordable homes, but there is little evidence that housing is a priority for them in government.
One answer is to build more affordable social housing, but that will require creative thinking on freeing brown field sites that are lying un-used. The end of right-of-buy your council house will help supply a little, but the Scottish Government will also have to end the council tax freeze to free up money that councils can spend on housing.
Shelter Scotland has responded to the crisis by calling on the political parties to include targets for new affordable housing in their manifestos for next year's Holyrood elections. In the face of the shocking figures on homeless children, all the parties should now rise to that challenge.
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