Homelessness in Scotland: 2025-26

Temporary accommodation

Key points in 2025-26

• Households spent an average of 237 days in temporary accommodation
• Households with children spent longer in temporary accommodation than those without
• Higher average times for open cases than closed cases
• Increase in the number of instances temporary accommodation not offered
• Slight decrease in the number of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order

Sources of temporary accommodation data

Since 2002, local authorities have provided aggregate snapshot information relating to households in temporary accommodation. While this allows trends to be explored over time, understanding around individual placements and how these relate to assessed households is not possible from the snapshot data. Therefore, since 1 April 2016 placement level information on households in temporary accommodation has been provided to enable a more rounded picture of the use of temporary accommodation.

The snapshot data shows 19,004 households in temporary accommodation as at 31 March 2026. The placement level returns show that there were 20,926 temporary accommodation placements open at 31 March 2026 – higher (1,922, 10%) than the snapshot returns. Differences may be explained by the returns including different types of temporary accommodation and the placement level returns experiencing a lag in cases being closed.

Both of these figures show households in temporary accommodation at a point in time and, as such, will include those who have recently entered temporary accommodation as well as those who have been in temporary accommodation for a longer period of time (including prior to the reporting year).

Reporting of temporary accommodation

Over 2025-26, 47,459 temporary accommodation placements were entered and 44,845 were exited. This is a net difference of 2,614. This is not quite the same as the increase of 1,764 households in temporary accommodation between 31 March and 2024 and 2025 from the aggregate snapshot data, however, this is likely due to the differences in the collections outlined above. Total number of placements is a useful measure for showing the overall scale of temporary accommodation usage. However, placement level analysis alone provides limited insight due to the often very transient nature of the use of temporary accommodation. It is not unusual for households to enter and exit multiple placements, with or without gaps in between.

When considering certain aspects of temporary accommodation such as number of placements, average time spent in temporary accommodation etc., the true extent of this can only be fully understood once a household’s homelessness application has been closed.

How many households entered temporary accommodation for the first time? How many exited for the last time?

In 2025-26, 25,116  households entered a first (ever) temporary accommodation placement (within the same homelessness application). This may include households whose homelessness applications were made prior to this year. Over the same period, 20,120 households exited their last (ever) temporary accommodation placement (within the same homelessness application). A household is considered to have ‘exited’ temporary accommodation in a reporting year only if their homelessness case has closed and their last associated temporary accommodation placement is within that year.

These figures give a net difference of 4,996 more households entering temporary accommodation for the first time than exiting for the last time. This relates to the increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation which can be seen in the snapshot figures. Although the numbers will not match given the differences outlined above, this is a notably large discrepancy.

The largest net increase was in Edinburgh with 1,450 more households entering than exiting. This the next largest was Glasgow, with a net difference of 1,287.

How commonly is temporary accommodation used?

Chart 7: Nearly two-thirds of homelessness applications take up temporary accommodation

Number of temporary accommodation placements for applications closed in 2025-26

There is variation in the number of placements between local authorities with 92% of homeless households in Shetland having at least one temporary accommodation placement compared to 27% in Scottish Borders. In Edinburgh, 10% of homeless households had five or more placements. Caution should be applied for local authorities where findings are based on small numbers.

What types of temporary accommodation are used?

Chart 8: Social sector accommodation is the most common type of temporary accommodation, in particular for households with children or pregnant women

Households in temporary accommodation, by type of accommodation, as at 31 March 2026

There has been an increase in the use of Bed & Breakfast temporary accommodation. For all households, this has increased from 14% of all placements at 31 March 2025 to 18% in 2026. For households with children this was 4% at 31 March 2026 compared to 3% the previous year.

Data from the placement level data collection can provide further insight into the total use of temporary accommodation over the course of homelessness cases. However, it is difficult to make direct comparisons with the snapshot data (shown in Chart 8) as different categories of temporary accommodation are used between the two returns.

There was a total of 43,045 temporary accommodation placements associated with cases that closed in 2025-26. Of which, 38% were in local authority or housing association/registered social landlord (RSL) accommodation; 16% were in hostel accommodation; and 35% were in bed & breakfast accommodation.

The higher proportion of hostel and bed & breakfast accommodation in the placement level returns (18% vs 35%) indicates that these types of temporary accommodation are more frequently used than the snapshot data suggests. However, this can be explained by the fact that the average duration for stays in these types of accommodation is much shorter - for example, 51 days in bed & breakfast compared to an average of 119 days for all temporary accommodation – and therefore they account for a much smaller proportion of the overall use of temporary accommodation. See Chart 10 for average durations by accommodation type.

Data on the number of placements and average length of time will help improve understanding of the ways in which different types of temporary accommodation are used.

How long do households spend in temporary accommodation?

For households with cases that closed in 2025-26, and where they took up temporary accommodation, they spent an average of of 237 days in temporary accommodation. This is 3 days less than 2024-25, but still much larger than 175 days in 2017-18, the start of the time series.

Note that total duration is calculated by summing the time a household spends in individual placements, excluding time between placements when a household is not in temporary accommodation. As a result, the time a household spends in temporary accommodation may not be continuous.

Edinburgh has the highest average time at 517 days. Other notably high durations in temporary accommodation are in East Dunbartonshire (413 days), Orkney (353 days), Midlothian (339 days), East Lothian (334 days) and Shetland (333 days).

Aberdeenshire is the local authority with the lowest average time in temporary accommodation (73 days), followed by Perth & Kinross (80 days).

Average total time spent in temporary accommodation also varies by household type.

Chart 9: Households with children spend longer in temporary accommodation

Time households with and without children spent in temporary accommodation (for cases closed in 2025-26)

[To note: information about individuals within temporary accommodation placements is not available from the placement level data. Household type has therefore been derived from the information provided on the homelessness application. This accounts for the difference in the number of households with children compared to the snapshot data return.]

Chart 10: Households spend the longest, on average, in private sector lease and housing association accommodation

Average duration (days) in temporary accommodation, by type of accommodation (for cases that closed in 2025-26)

What about households that are still in temporary accommodation?

The time spent in temporary accommodation up to 31 March 2026 can also be calculated for homelessness cases that are still open.

Chart 11: Average time in temporary accommodation is longer for open cases than closed cases for all household types

Average total time (days) spent in temporary accommodation, for open and closed cases, by household type

How often do applicants refuse temporary accommodation?

A household can choose to refuse an offer of temporary accommodation made by the local authority. However, a household that has refused an offer of temporary accommodation may accept a subsequent offer.

In 2025-26, there were 6,215 cases of households refusing offers of temporary accommodation. This is a decrease of 95 (2%) compared to 2024-25. The largest numerical decreases were in South Lanarkshire (from 320 to 165) and Inverclyde (from 195 to 45); the largest numerical increase was in Glasgow (from 1,565 to 1,825).

How often do local authorities fail to provide temporary accommodation?

A local authority is required to indicate when they do not offer temporary accommodation to a household and are therefore acting unlawfully. During 2025-26, there were 21,800 instances of households not being offered temporary accommodation. This is an increase compared to 16,460 in 2024-25. The largest numerical increase was in Edinburgh (from 3,245 to 7,465), with the next in Glasgow (from 12,780 to 13,730). Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire also had notable increases over this period (from 5 to 245 and from 35 to 165, respectively).

How often do local authorities breach unsuitable accommodation legislation?

Between April 2025 and March 2026 there were 7,760 reported breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order (UAO) across twenty local authorities. This compares to 7,810 reported in 2024-25.

Glasgow had the largest number of breaches (3,740), followed by Edinburgh (1,190), Dumfries & Galloway (405), West Lothian (375) and Aberdeen City (325) .