On 31 March 2026, more than 19,000 households, including over 10,700 children, were living in temporary homeless accommodation in Scotland. This represented increases of 10% and 5% respectively compared with the previous year, despite policy efforts to reduce its use.
Over the past six years, homelessness services have come under growing pressure. Record numbers of households are now living in temporary accommodation, reflecting wider pressures in Scotland’s housing system.
These challenges have contributed to the declaration of a national housing emergency and several local housing emergencies.
This blog explores how temporary accommodation is used, why numbers have increased, and what is being done to address the issue.
When do councils need to provide temporary accommodation?
Councils in Scotland have legal duties towards homeless people and those threatened with homelessness.
Councils should provide temporary accommodation to people when:
- a council has reason to believe someone is homeless and they have nowhere else to stay while a homelessness assessment is carried out
- someone is found to be ‘intentionally’ homeless, while they seek advice and assistance to help source and find other accommodation (councils don’t have to consider whether someone is intentionally homeless)
- a council owes a duty to secure settled accommodation for a homeless household, but suitable permanent housing is not yet available.
What type of temporary accommodation is used?
Councils decide how they provide temporary accommodation and use a range of options.
The most common approach is the use of council housing stock, either furnished or unfurnished. Councils also work with housing associations to make homes available for temporary use. Other forms of accommodation can include leased private rented accommodation, refuges, hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation.
Legislation restricts the use of “unsuitable” temporary accommodation, such as many forms of B&B accommodation, to no more than seven days, except in exceptional circumstances.
There is also guidance on the standards that temporary accommodation should meet, and the Scottish Government has consulted on introducing a legally enforceable standards framework.
Numbers of households living in temporary accommodation is at a record high
Scottish Government statistics provide snapshot figures of the number of households in temporary accommodation. On 31 March 2026, just over 19,000 households were living in temporary accommodation, an increase of 10% from last year (see Figure below)
The number of children in temporary accommodation also reached the highest in the time series. This was 10,715 at 31 March 2026, an increase of 5% compared to 2025.
Larger households are more likely to have lived in temporary accommodation for more than a year.
While national figures show an overall increase, pressures vary considerably between councils, with Glasgow and Edinburgh experiencing the greatest challenges.
Why has the use of temporary accommodation increased?
The growth in temporary accommodation reflects a combination of factors rather than a single cause.
Demand for homelessness services has increased at the same time as affordable and social housing remains in short supply in many areas.
Economic pressures have also contributed to rising housing need, while increasing complexity in some homelessness cases has added further pressure to local services.
In Glasgow, one contributory factor has been the rise in refugees leaving asylum accommodation. When individuals receive refugee status or leave to remain they must leave Home Office accommodation and may then apply to the council for homelessness assistance.
Changes introduced by the UK Government to speed up decisions on asylum applications, has meant more people have moved through this process. Because Glasgow houses most asylum seekers in Scotland, the city has experienced a particularly large increase in demand for homelessness and temporary accommodation services.
On 31 March 2026, 3,040 refugee /leave to remain households were living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow, 35% more than the previous year. Edinburgh also recorded a substantial increase, with refugee households in temporary accommodation rising by 57% (to 2,060).
Some councils cannot meet their statutory duties around temporary accommodation
In April 2026, the Scottish Housing Regulator assessed Glasgow and Edinburgh as experiencing systemic failure in their homelessness services and identified a further nine councils as being at heightened risk. By systemic failure, the Regulator means that “Demand for homelessness support — both the number of people needing help and the complexity of their needs — continues to exceed some local authorities’ capacity to respond.”
The Regulator reported increasing cases where households entitled to temporary accommodation were not provided with it. There were also rising numbers of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order.
In 2025-26, there were 21,800 instances where councils did not offer a household temporary accommodation when they were entitled to it. This represented a 32% increase on the previous year. Most of these cases occurred in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There were also more than 7,700 instances where councils breached the Unsuitable Accommodation Order. Glasgow recorded the highest number of breaches, followed by Edinburgh. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are committed to reducing the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation. For example, Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership’s new 10 year temporary accommodation strategy lists as one of its aims “To end the routine use of B&B accommodation in the City by transforming emergency accommodation into rapid access support services.”
What is being done to reduce the use of temporary accommodation?
The Scottish Government’s approach focuses on increasing affordable housing supply, preventing homelessness earlier, targeted funding for councils with the greatest pressures and helping households move more quickly into permanent homes.
Specific actions by the Scottish Government have included, for example,
- funding pilot schemes, including private sector leasing, to reduce the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation such as hostels, hotels and B&Bs
Social landlords have also increased the proportion of social lets to homeless households. In 2025/26, 46% of social lets were made to homeless households, up from 41% in 2022/23.
Some councils have also changed their allocation practices. For example, in 2025, the City of Edinburgh Council suspended its normal allocation policy to prioritise households with the most urgent housing needs, including homelessness. In August 2026, the council reported that the suspension had “played a significant role in increasing the supply of suitable temporary accommodation” and it would resume its normal allocation policy from 4 October 2026.
Despite these measures, the number of households and children living in temporary accommodation remain at record levels. Reducing temporary accommodation use is therefore likely to remain a key challenge for homelessness policy and housing services in the years ahead.
Kate Berry and Alex Arnott, SPICe