Question reference: S6W-13801
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 12 January 2023
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many families, in the period since 2012, have lived in temporary accommodation for at least three years.
Answer
For this response families have been interpreted as households with children.
There have been 447 households with children included in the homelessness application that have spent three years or more in temporary accommodation. This is based on available temporary accommodation placement data, where placements closed on or before 31 March 2022. Source: HL1 and HL3 data collections up to 31 March 2022, data as published on 18 August 2022.
Notes on data
The total duration of stay in temporary accommodation for households with children has been derived by linking records between the homelessness application (HL1) and temporary accommodation placement (HL3) data collections. The HL1 collects information on the composition of households making homelessness applications (available from 2002-03). The HL3 gathers information about temporary accommodation placements associated with homelessness applications (only available for all local authorities from 2017-18, however, it includes placements which commenced prior, and includes data prior to this for some local authorities).
The total duration is based on the sum of the durations of all temporary accommodation placements associated with the same household. It may be underestimated where households have placements that started and ended before the HL3 data collection began.
The figure includes households who may have turned down multiple offers of settled accommodation by the local authority but have chosen to wait for an offer that fully meets their needs.
It is important to note that households may sometimes make alternative arrangements for children when entering temporary accommodation and therefore children included in the HL1 return are not always present in associated placements. It can also be that children are present for only part of the stay in temporary accommodation, e.g. as part of shared custody arrangements.