Homelessness in Scotland: update to 30 September 2025
This statistics bulletin provides information on homelessness in Scotland in the six-month period from 1 April 2025 to 30 September 2025, alongside historical data.
Part of
The extent of homelessness in Scotland
Key Points
- Decreases in applications and households assessed as homeless
- Increases in households and children in temporary accommodation and open applications
- 16% of all applications are from households granted refugee / leave to remain status
Applications, assessments, and households in temporary accommodation
Table A: Homelessness applications, assessments and households in temporary accommodation, April to September 2024 and 2025
| Measure |
2024 Apr-Sep |
2025 Apr-Sep |
Change
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Percent | |||
|
Applications |
21,111 | 20,643 | -468 |
-2% |
| Assessed as homeless | 17,670 | 17,291 | -379 | -2% |
| Open applications as at 30 September | 31,882 | 33,006 | 1,124 | 4% |
| Households in temporary accommodation as at 30 September | 16,634 | 18,092 | 1,458 | 9% |
Over the six-month period 1 April to 30 September 2025, there have been decreases in the number of homelessness applications and households assessed as homeless. However, the number of open homelessness applications and households in temporary accommodation have continued to increase, with both now the highest in the time series (2003 and 2002, respectively).
The number of children in temporary accommodation also reached the highest in the time series, now at 10,480, although a much smaller increase (120 or 1%) compared to households in temporary accommodation.
Eligibility
Applications from households granted refugee / leave to remain status (including Ukrainian nationals present through an appropriate scheme) increased by 51% (from 2,115 to 3,200). Applications from these households account for 16% of homelessness applications nationally and are the highest number and proportion in the series. The number of applications from households across all other eligibility categories decreased.
There were 6,175 live cases for households granted refugee / leave to remain status as at 30 September 2025, accounting for 19% of the national total.
Intentionality
Of the 17,291 applications that were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness in the six-month period in 2025, 16,792 (97%) were assessed as unintentionally homeless and 499 (3%) were assessed as intentionally homeless. The number of households assessed as intentionally homeless has been increasing in recent years, following a notable drop as a result of change in legislation from a duty to a discretionary power in November 2019. Current figures are still below pre-legislation change and account for 2% of all assessments.
Local authority differences
Applications
Twenty local authorities experienced a decrease in applications between 2024 and 2025, with the other twelve experiencing an increase.
Glasgow experienced the largest numerical decrease (382, 9%) and Aberdeen City the largest numerical increase (181, 20%).
The local authorities with the largest number of applications from households granted refugee / leave to remain status were Glasgow (1,700, accounting for 44% of their applications), Edinburgh (655, accounting for 33% of their applications) and Aberdeen City (270, accounting for 25% of their applications).
Open homelessness applications
The increase in open applications is dominated by Edinburgh with an increase of 1,203 (from 7,441 to 8,644) between September 2024 and 2025. The next largest increase was in Glasgow (267), despite a decrease in applications.
The largest decreases were in Falkirk (376) and Fife (214).
Households in temporary accommodation
Edinburgh (690, 17%) and Glasgow (642, 17%) had the largest numerical increases between September 2024 and September 2025. Perth and Kinross (37, 63%) and Aberdeenshire (42, 51%) also experienced high proportionate increases.).
The largest numerical decrease was in Fife (74, 7%).