Glasgow has incurred public expenditure approaching £300 million in a failed bid to adhere to legal mandates against turning away homeless families, with infractions increasing sharply, The Herald reports.
The city, grappling with a significant housing crisis, has seen its emergency accommodation expenses for the homeless multiply fourfold after facing censure for not fulfilling its statutory obligations.
The Herald has uncovered that despite an outlay of £280 million over the past six years, Glasgow has repeatedly contravened the law, failing to promptly provide housing to the homeless on over 12,600 occasions since the onset of the pandemic.
Remarkably, nearly half of these violations (6,320) occurred between April and September 2024 alone.
The fiscal burden has surged from £2.256 million per month in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20 to £8.410 million per month in the initial ten months of the 2024/25 fiscal year, prompted by a housing regulator probe into breaches of ‘human rights’ law.
Over nearly six years, the funds expended could have facilitated the creation of approximately 1,400 affordable permanent homes instead of transient lodging like bed and breakfasts and hotels.
Despite this significant expenditure, the number of homeless households denied accommodation by the council has soared.
Scotland-wide, legal breaches involving the homeless, including vulnerable groups like children and expectant mothers, increased from 2,000 incidents in the six months up to September 2023 to 7,545 in the corresponding period in 2024.
The Scottish Tenants Organisation has labelled these findings as indicative of mismanagement, stressing the urgency for Glasgow to implement a robust housing strategy that utilises these funds to construct substantial, permanent homes, especially for families. The group criticized the city’s delayed response to the escalating crisis.
Meanwhile, Living Rent has highlighted the dysfunction within the current system, where despite substantial spending on temporary solutions, the underlying issues remain unaddressed.
They emphasized the dire situation of vulnerable populations, particularly mothers and children, being left homeless in Scotland’s largest city despite government pledges to eliminate child poverty.
In late 2020, a Scottish Government-funded housing regulator found Glasgow Council to have breached its legal housing duties by not ensuring adequate temporary accommodation before the pandemic, spotlighting a systemic failure directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament.
