GLASGOW has seen a rise in people applying as homeless, according to the latest statistics.
In the 12 months from October 2018 to September 2019 almost 6000 applications were made to Glasgow City Council.
In just six months, between April and September last year, there was an increase of 599 applications compared to the same period the year before.
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The statistics also showed there were more people in temporary accommodation in Glasgow, with more than 2,200.
The 5873 applications to the council was the highest in Scotland accounting for 16% of all homeless applications in Scotland.
As well as people in Glasgow, there are many people who come from other local authority areas in the UK to Glasgow and make an application in the city. In many cases they state they are fleeing violence.
Other reasons like the impact of Universal Credit on rent arrears has been noticed to have affected the homelessness statistics.
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There were also breaches of the law on homelessness where someone is not offered emergency accommodation.
Shelter Scotland has been highlighting the number of times people are “not offered” accommodation.
The latest figures show Glasgow breached the rule on 1540 occasions and Edinburgh 175.
However, the Edinburgh figure could be higher as there are reported “data collection problems”.
The statistics show 1,405 failures to accommodate in Edinburgh between January 2017 to September last year.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said: “Sadly, we have seen increasing pressure on homeless services since the introduction of Universal Credit.
“This is despite work we have been carrying out in communities to mitigate the impact of benefit changes and to help people at risk of losing their homes.
“Unfortunately, there have been some instances where we’ve been unable to offer people temporary accommodation immediately and accept that our services must evolve to cope with increasing demand. “Work to radically transform the delivery of homeless services is ongoing via our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan and Housing First programmes for people with complex needs. We are also in the process of forming a ground-breaking Alliance to End Homelessness which will be a UK first.”
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