This small-scale study highlights the emerging trends and potential concerns regarding single homelessness in Scotland.

Key findings

Homelessness prevention

• Scale: Approximately 80% of prevention approaches are made by single people but there is variation between local authorities, with the proportion of single homeless people ranging from 100% to 48%.
• Reasons for approach: Nearly 70% of people seek prevention assistance for homelessness reasons (rather than prevention reasons). There is significant variation between local authorities, with the proportion of single homeless people reporting a prevention reason ranging from 71% to 0%.
• Outcomes of homelessness prevention: These differ between single homeless people and families. Single people are less likely to find alternative accommodation in the social rented or private rented sectors (7% vs 12%), and slightly less likely to have their homelessness ended by remaining in current accommodation (24% vs 26%). Instead, single homeless people are more likely to move in with friends/relatives (3% vs 1%) or lose contact (13% vs 8%). There is variation between local authorities. The proportion of single homeless people enabled to remain or find alternative accommodation ranges from 79% to 9%.

Homelessness applications

• Reasons for homelessness: Single people are far more likely to become homeless because they are asked to leave their accommodation (30% vs 16%), which correlates with the fact that a high proportion of single people become homeless from the parental/family home (29% vs 18%), from the accommodation of friends/a partner (20% vs 16%), or from long-term sofa surfing (3% vs 1%). Single people are also more likely to become homeless on discharge from prison (9% vs. 0%).
• Factors contributing to a homelessness application: A higher proportion of single people were recorded as facing drug/alcohol dependency (10% vs 1%), lack of support from friends/family (10% vs 5%), mental health issues (9% vs 4%), criminal/anti-social behaviour (8% vs 4%), difficulties managing on their own (5% vs 2%), and physical health issues (4% vs 2%).
• Repeat applications: Repeat homelessness was more common amongst single homeless people than families (7% vs 3%). There is some variation between local authorities as rates of repeat homelessness amongst single homeless people range from 1% to 12%.

Homelessness assessments

• The proportion of single homeless people found to be unintentionally homeless varies across local authorities, ranging from 91% of decisions to 26%.
• In several local authorities more than 10% of single homeless people were determined to be intentionally homeless.

Temporary accomodation

• The rate of temporary accommodation use for families varies between local authorities, ranging from 0 – 18 households per 10,000. In contrast, the
• range is far greater for single homeless people, ranging from 6 – 53 people per 10,000.
• Single people are far more likely than families to be accommodated in hostels or B&Bs (35% vs <5%), whereas families are more likely to be accommodated in social rented housing (88% vs 54%).
• There is variation between local authorities. The proportion of single homeless people temporarily accommodated in social rented accommodation ranges from 100% to 12%.

Homelessness application outcomes

• Outcomes: After making a homelessness application, approximately 66% of families were offered a Scottish Secure tenancy or a private rented tenancy compared to 47% of single people. Moreover, contact was lost with 14% of single people compared to 6% of homeless families. Outcomes vary across local authorities. The proportion of single unintentionally homeless people who were offered a tenancy ranges from 33% to 81%.
• Duration of homelessness applications: Unintentionally homeless single people are likely to wait approximately four weeks longer for their homelessness duty to be discharged when compared to families (233 days vs 205 days to be dealt with and closed). The duration between homelessness application and case closure varies markedly across local authorities, with the mean time ranging from less than 100 days (approx. 3 months) to more than 550 days (approx. 18 months).

Reference

Mackie, P. & Thomas, I. (2015) Single homelessness in Scotland. London: Crisis.