Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron writes about the challenges facing Edinburgh, and the work being done to tackle them:
In Edinburgh, our population continues to grow at speed and for some years now, housing demand has been significantly outstripping supply.
Since declaring a Housing Emergency nearly two years ago, this Council, together with housing providers and partners across the sector, has continued to grapple with this crisis within statutory and policy frameworks, including the new Housing Bill, and resources available.
Eighty thousand Edinburgh residents live in relative poverty, comprising one in five children, and 5,500 of our households are without settled housing, living in temporary accommodation.
To tackle this, the Council’s approach focuses on prevention, early intervention and mitigation.
Central to preventing homelessness is making sure everyone has access to a safe, warm place to stay; and investing in help and support for those at risk of losing their homes.
In 2024, we helped prevent homelessness for 2,622 households. This work ranges from our Early Intervention team, who reach out to all households who contact homelessness services, to specialist advice and support provided by our Private Rented Sector team.
Where we have been unable to prevent individuals and families from losing their homes, we are working hard to provide suitable alternative accommodation through our Housing Emergency Action Plan (HEAP).
Our long-term plans to reduce the need for temporary accommodation and improve the quality and quantity of our housing stock include our ambitious housebuilding programme, efforts to acquire new homes directly from providers, bringing empty homes back into use, and investing in the retrofitting of existing housing stock.
This World Homeless Day, as Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, I am acutely aware of the power of work we all still need to do and the resources we need from Government to deliver meaningful increases in our housing supply so that every person and family in Edinburgh can be living in a warm, safe, energy efficient home.
£84m cash boost to help prevent homelessness and support families this winter and immediate help for children and families in temporary accommodation
New £84m cash boost to help prevent homelessness and support families this winter
Immediate help for children and families in temporary accommodation at heart of new package
Announced on World Homeless Day, the funding builds on the record £1 billion investment this year to end homelessness and rough sleeping
Thousands of people facing homelessness will be supported by a new £84 million cash injection to councils up and down the country – ahead of winter.
Children and families in temporary accommodation will be prioritised – with the funding to go towards helping families to cover the essentials like food, school travel and laundry. The new funding, which will support children to remain in education, will be announced on World Homeless Day (10 October).
It comes as record levels of households are in temporary accommodation, including nearly 170,000 children. Levels of rough sleeping have more than doubled since 2010.
Areas with the highest pressures, such as London, will be in line for the additional funding to tackle homelessness this year. This comes on top of the government’s almost £1 billion investment to tackle homelessness this year and includes the largest ever investment in prevention services, helping councils intervene early and stop homelessness before it happens.
The investment provides tailored services for those experiencing long-term rough sleeping – including mental health support, drug and alcohol treatment and sustainable accommodation – ensuring people get the help they need to rebuild their lives.
Housing Secretary, Steve Reed said: “Homelessness is a moral stain on our society. Growing numbers of people have been abandoned to sleep rough on the streets and children left in squalid, overcrowded conditions.
“This government will not stand idly by and allow that to continue. We will make different choices. That’s why we are investing £1 billion to give homeless people the security of a roof over their heads and get back on track to end homelessness for good.”
Yesterday’s investment supports delivery of the Plan for Change, in addition to:
£950 million to increase the supply of good temporary accommodation.
Abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions through the landmark Renters’ Rights Bill.
£39 billion investment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation.
Homelessness Minister, Alison McGovern said:“You can’t have a decent life without a decent home. Whether it’s rough sleeping or sofa surfing or, at its worst, children stuck in B&Bs, homelessness in the UK has been too high for too long.
“This has to stop. Through our Plan for Change, the UK will build homes and get help to those who need it to put a roof over their head.
“We’re providing extra cash now to address a crisis made over the past decade. Both the government’s £39bn to build social and affordable homes and the Child Poverty Strategy to come will tackle the root causes of this problem, but we need action now to stop homelessness getting any worse.”
Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “This funding is very welcome, especially as winter approaches and with homelessness rising. More people are likely to face the prospect of sleeping on cold streets and need support urgently. More parents will be working out how to help their children do homework from cramped and draughty temporary accommodation.
“We know that targeted support can make a big difference and help people take their first steps out of homelessness.
“We hope this announcement marks another step towards an ambitious homelessness strategy. Alongside a concerted effort to build social housing at scale, and ensuring all parts of Government make their contribution to ending homelessness, we can create a safer and more prosperous future for people and families across the country.”
The £84m cash injection includes:
Nearly £70 million for the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant. This is flexible funding for 62 local authorities to prevent people sleeping rough and help them stay off the streets. This could mean strengthening local services on offer, partnering with charities and community organisations, providing sustainable accommodation to help people sleeping rough and specialist physical and mental health support workers and treatment.
Nearly £11 million to help families with children living in temporary accommodation access basic facilities like Wi-Fi, laundry, travel passes for school and uniform, and help pay for food and leisure activities. While the number of children and families living in B&Bs continues to fall under this government, more must be done to get those that need it into safe, secure homes. This funding will be directed to 61 areas with the highest numbers of children in temporary accommodation to make sure that they can have access to facilities they need and support with costs while they are there.
£3 million increase for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment element of the wider Drug and Alcohol Treatment, Recovery and Improvement Grant. This funding will be directed to 83 local authorities and a pan-London project, targeted at lifesaving support to people with drug or alcohol related issues who are sleeping rough and at risk of homelessness, including those with co-occurring mental health needs.
An uplift of £200,000 for the Voluntary, Community and Frontline Sector Grant which supports innovative faith and community-led initiatives such as night shelters to reduce the number of people experiencing repeat homelessness.
This funding is supporting the government’s Plan for Change to drive long-term improvements to health and education, ensuring both families and children can truly thrive and forms part of the government’s forthcoming homelessness and child poverty strategies.
World Homeless Day takes place every year on 10 October, raising awareness of the need to prevent and end homelessness and alleviate the suffering of those experiencing it. World Mental Health Day also takes place on 10 October every year – another important topic in homelessness and rough sleeping prevention.
Regional breakdown for total funding being allocated to local authorities is as follows:
London: £36.5m
South East: £9.6m
South West: £9.1m
East of England: £4m
East Midlands: £5.3m
West Midlands: £4.4m
North East: £1.5m
North West: £8.2m
Yorkshire & Humber: £5.2m
Total: £83.8m (to note, £200k is allocated to VCFS organisations and is therefore not included in the above regional breakdown as this is for local authority funding only)
The latest government figures show positive signs of fewer people needing help from the homelessness system across the last year. Between January and March 2025, 83,450 households were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness, which is lower compared to the record high in the same period in 2024.
The number of households with children in B&B has continued to fall since June 2024 when it was 5,910 – at the end of March 2025 it was 3,870.
There is also a continued drop in households with children in B&Bs for more than the statutory 6 weeks – at the end of June 2024 there were 3,770 households compared to the end of March 2025 where there were 2,300.
Shelter Scotland staff and volunteers will take their campaign against the housing emergency to the streets of Edinburgh today to mark World Homeless Day.
Campaigners will be out in force at the foot of Leith Walk issuing a Housing SOS.
The charity will be highlighting the increasing number of people experiencing homelessness and asking the public to join in it in demanding urgent action to address the capital’s worsening housing emergency.
At 12:00 activists in Edinburgh will be joining campaigners in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow in a “minute of noise”, letting our politicians know loud and clear that they need to act now.
World Homeless Day is marked each year on October 10th and unites activists working across the globe to end homelessness.
The latest figures released by the Scottish Government showed a 25% increase in the number of people who became homeless in Edinburgh in 2022/23, while more than 2,700 children in the city are stuck in temporary accommodation.
Shelter Scotland Director, Alison Watson, said: “Edinburgh’s housing emergency is getting worse; and across the country it is devastating lives so today we’re sending out a housing SOS.
“A household becomes homeless every 16 minutes on average, while 45 kids each day lose their home in Scotland.
“What’s so frustrating is that it doesn’t have to be like this, we know that by delivering social homes the government can end our housing emergency and give hope to the thousands of people across Scotland experiencing homelessness.
“That’s why this World Homeless Day, we’re out on the streets of Edinburgh not only demanding urgent action from those in power but urging the public to join our fight as well.
“At 12 o’clock we’ll join together to make a noise that politicians can’t ignore, to demand they make sure everyone in Edinburgh has somewhere to call home, and to remind them that none of us will be quiet until the job is done.”
TODAY (Monday 10 October) marks World Homeless Day, which highlights the issues facing many people without a permanent home in our communities.
With the cost of living rising, we want to raise awareness of the help we have available and what we are doing to increase our impact.
Prevention is better than a cure
The best way to tackle homelessness is to stop it from happening in the first place and to help as many people as we can before they find themselves at risk of losing their home.
We’re looking ahead to this winter and putting plans in place to help those at risk of fuel poverty, with a dedicated cost of living directory, and we’re working with Changeworks as we do every year, so that support is available to make homes warmer and more energy efficient.
Our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan steps up activity to prevent homelessness, maximises our supply of and access to settled housing options, reduces the time people spend as homeless, especially in temporary accommodation, and helps us to provide tailored support as and when people need it. It is a five-year plan which prioritises prevention and directs every decision we make to improve the homelessness services we provide.
24/7 help and advice
Despite working to prevent homelessness, sudden events, life changes or circumstances can lead to someone losing their home or rough sleeping unexpectedly. We have an emergency out of hours service which can be contacted at any time on 0800 032 5968.
We will provide a housing options interview to anyone at risk of becoming homeless within the next 56 days with the aim of stopping each person from losing their home, giving advice on housing options and involving other agencies who can help.
Streetwork is a charity that supports people who are homeless in Edinburgh. Their team is out on the streets every day and night, helping people to resolve their homelessness as quickly as possible. Anyone can contact Streetwork if they are worried about someone they think is homeless, on 0808 178 2323 or at streetteam@streetwork.org.uk.
Streetwork will go out to find the person to offer them support.
The Scottish Government has imposed a nationwide rent freeze until March 2023 to help with the cost of living crisis. Yet, Edinburgh still experiences some of the highest private sector rents in Europe.
That’s why we’ve created a dedicated team tasked with reducing the number of people who become homeless from the private rented sector. By the end of March 2022, this team has supported 100 homeless households to access a settled home in the private rented sector or in mid-market rent properties – preventing homelessness for 240 households by helping them to remain in their current private rental tenancy, or by supporting them to access a new home in a private rented sector or mid-market rent property.
Early intervention for Council tenants
We’ve frozen rents for Council tenants for two years running and Councillors are considering extending this for another year.
We’ve carried out an early intervention pilot project to identify and support Council tenants who are at serious risk of court or eviction action from failing to pay rents, but who have been difficult to engage with. Over the course of the pilot, 49% of household referrals engaged with the service and remain in their home and now we will seek to develop the service further.
Tailored help at the hardest of times
We’re developing pathways to avoid homelessness for people at key transition points in their life – such as leaving hospital or prison or fleeing domestic abuse – and have specialist support in place for anyone at these junctures.
In 2020 we adopted a new Domestic Abuse Housing Policy which aims to give people affected by domestic abuse access a range of housing options. It prioritises, where possible, those subjected to abuse safely staying where they are or moving quickly and with strong support into a safer space.
Breaking the cycle of repeated homelessness
Experiencing homeless is a hugely stressful and challenging event for anyone. Often there are complex reasons why a person returns to homelessness. We work with our partners like NHS Lothian, Streetwork, Shelter and Bethany to offer mental health, addiction and other help to try and break the cycle.
Providing a home is just one aspect of combatting homelessness. Helping people to access financial support, set up a bank account, find employment, access the internet, and participate in community life are all ways which can support independence and stability. We work with partners in the third sector to provide this help.
Edinburgh Help to Rent is a scheme to help homeless households’ access and keep a private rented tenancy in Edinburgh. The scheme provides a rent deposit guarantee bond and offers rent in advance, as well as furniture, and access to support if needed. This service is delivered by Crisis and 138 bonds have been issued to households over the course of the project so far, with 38 issued in the year to March 2022.
Better support for people experiencing homelessness
We have been delivering a scheme called Housing First since November 2018. It provides ordinary, settled housing with separate wrap-around support for people with the most complex of needs. As of 31 March 2022 we had a tenancy sustainment rate of 80% and support has been provided for a total of 153 households.
Delivered by Simon Community Scotland / Streetwork, these interim measures will be in place until the end of March 2023, when we’ll commission Visiting Housing Support – an improved one stop service which will include support for people in receipt of housing first, people currently receiving support from the complex needs service and people who currently receive support from the locality visiting housing support services.
Additional support for young people
We provide a homelessness prevention service and advice on housing options for young people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and are 16 or 17 years old, or under 21 and have been looked after by us. Likewise, special support is available for people with significant support needs.
For young people who are leaving or recently left our care, they are supported to find appropriate, sustainable accommodation. It is a transition to live independently, and we work with young people to create a Pathway Plan.
We’ve also committed to developing proposals for a youth housing hub, a physical hub providing co-location of core services and hosting for wider relevant services for young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Services provided would include statutory services, employability, housing support, health services, advice and welfare services. A feasibility study has been completed and a draft implementation plan is being taken forward.
Moving people through the system quicker
With demand for housing so high in Edinburgh, many people face long waiting times for a suitable home which best meets their needs. People can also feel unsure about the bidding process.
To help us speed up the system, we’ve recruited 28 additional officers including 10 new Housing Assistants and a Supervisor. These posts are part of a recently formed transformation team in Homelessness Prevention and Housing Options who are supporting the work to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation.
Our Housing Assistants provide practical help ensuring people understand the bidding process, get support with bidding as required and provide feedback on bids. They re-enforce Housing Options advice. At the end of March 2022, among other positive outcomes, the Housing Assistants’ interventions resulted in 892 case closures and 87 homeless households accepting suitable offers of settled accommodation as a direct result of bidding feedback.
Improving our accommodation
It is no secret that Edinburgh faces a severe social housing shortage and demand for new housing. In the face of these challenges, we are working hard to improve the type and amount of temporary accommodation we have to offer, and we’re doing this through some innovative ways.
Private Sector Leasing (PSL)
PSL provides self-contained flats leased from private landlords. The new contract we introduced in 2020 linked rates we can offer to local market rates within Edinburgh. This has allowed more competitive rates to and take up from landlords. At the end of March 2022 there were 1,747 PSL properties, which is an increase of 163 properties compared to the year previous.
Home Share
This is a form of temporary accommodation where three to five people live together in a furnished home in the community. This accommodation has received positive feedback from residents, the number of Home Share properties we’re offering has increased from 6 properties and 26 residents in March 2020 to 17 properties and 55 residents across the city by 31 March 2022.
Temporary Furnished Flats (TFF)
We have a plan to increase our stock of these flats as quickly as possible and reduce the amount of emergency accommodation we use. The Covid-19 pandemic impacted on the delivery of this initiative but work has now fully commenced again.
Development of gap homes
Officers are identifying potential gap sites, small suitable areas of land in Council ownership, which could be used to build temporary accommodation through modular construction methods that meets the needs of service users.
Support for refugees
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, we’ve welcomed thousands of Ukrainian refugees through Edinburgh, providing similar homelessness support to anyone without a permanent home in this city. While most Ukrainian people settled here are on Government schemes, we are also aiding temporary accommodation and support into employment, to receive benefits and with household items.
Social homes
We have a rehousing target of a minimum of 50% of Registered Social Landlords (RSL) lets, both new build and existing, being allocated to homeless households. The target for Council social lets is a minimum of 70%, which means many homes which become available are prioritised to people who have been experiencing homelessness.
As part of our housebuilding plans, we are also committed to building new Council homes within 10 years, and to ‘retrofitting’ thousands of existing homes to bring them up to a newbuild standard.
Commenting, Councillor Jane Meagher, Housing Homelessness and Fair Work Convener said:“It takes a whole society to work together to help people who face homelessness and prevent families from losing their homes.
“This World Homeless Day I’m so grateful to the many officers, third sector organisations, partners and volunteers in our city who work day and night to help people in desperate need.
“The daily pressures facing people experiencing homelessness are unimaginable for most. No one should have to experience the stress of not having a safe and permanent home.
“Sadly, after the pandemic we’re starting to see numbers of homeless cases gradually rise again – highlighting just how important and urgent it is that people understand the help which exists.
“Particularly in light of the cost of living crisis this winter, we are focusing our efforts on prevention and helping people to stay in their current homes, given the many difficulties households face.
“Edinburgh is a growing city and we face housing pressures like nowhere else in Scotland. With the lowest proportion of social housing in the country and the biggest, most expensive, private rented sector, the current economic climate is of concern.
“That said, the Council and the city has made huge strides in recent years. There are changes which I think are making a truly positive impact and will make a great difference in the long term. Lots of work has taken place to tackle root causes and recurring issues when it comes to homelessness in our city, and that’s clear to see. Together, we’re committed to keeping the momentum going as we face the cost of living challenges ahead of us.”
