Desperate mum Melanie Kivlin has pleaded for more social housing to be built after figures revealed record numbers of families are stuck in B and Bs and temporary homes.
Despite a Scottish Government pledge to move away from such accommodation – which can blight children’s schooling and mental health – there are now record numbers of families stuck in emergency homes.
The latest figures show that a record 10,360 children were in temporary accommodation on 30 September 2024, up five percent compared to the previous six months.
The figures include Melanie Kivlin and her five kids, who have been stuck in a mice-infested temporary home in Edinburgh for nearly three years.
For two months before that the mum and her kids shared a single hotel room.
Melanie, 42, said the psychological and physical pressure of bringing up a family in such circumstances has pushed her to breaking point.
She said: “I can barely describe how bad it is to be stuck in a hotel or a B and B. I couldn’t put the kids in school, we had nowhere to go to get any personal space and I was cooking pot noodle stuff from a kettle every day.
“It was costing me money I didn’t have for a horrible, meagre existence, even with the hotel staff showing us nothing but kindness during our stay.”
She added: “The home I have now is terrible and I have mouse dropping now appearing in my bed and repairs needing done.
“But no family should have to face living in one or two rooms because there is nothing else to offer them.”
Melanie spoke out as Scottish Government statistics on homelessness published yesterday showed:
*10,360 children living in temporary accommodation on 30 September 2024 -up by 250 children compared to the previous six months.
*2,680 homeless households in B and Bs September last year – up 41 per cent.
*4,085 breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order between 1 April and 30 September 2024 – a 11% increase compared to the previous six months.
*16,634 households in temporary accommodation as of 30 September 2024 an increase from 16,330
*32,272 live homeless cases as of 30 September 2024 an increase from 31,794.
Scottish Labour described the figures as a “national scandal”, with housing spokesman Mark Griffin saying: “The SNP slashed funding for affordable housing and raided council budgets for years.
“The SNP’s shameful negligence has left thousands of Scots with no home, hundreds sleeping rough, and more than 10,000 children without the safe, secure home they deserve.”
Shelter Scotland is calling on the Scottish Government’s renewed housing budget to focus on reducing the number of children trapped in temporary accommodation.
Director Alison Watson said: “This is the harrowing reality of decades of under-investment in social housing.
“These figures show the direct consequence of the Scottish Government and local authorities failing to prioritise housing and the desperate need for more social homes.
“The Scottish Government reversed the brutal cuts to housing, but it needs to acknowledge it brings us to the same amount of funding that we had in 2022.
“Since then, the number of people living in temporary homes has risen, people are trapped in the system for longer, the number of people rough sleeping has increased dramatically, and the cost of living has skyrocketed.”
More than a dozen local authorities across Scotland have declared housing emergencies in the last 18 months.
Maeve McGoldrick, head of policy for Crisis in Scotland, said: “As the cost of living crisis continues to impact household incomes, more people being forced from their homes, often in circumstances where we know it could have been prevented from happening.
“That means more children forced to grow up without a safe, secure place to live and more being money spent on emergency responses, while the key causes of homelessness go unresolved.”
Paul McGarry, Scottish Lib Dem housing spokesman, said: “In Scotland, affordable housebuilding has collapsed and the cost-of-living crisis has made rents and mortgages unaffordable for so many. Last year, the SNP made that situation even worse by taking an axe to the housing budget.
“We will continue to press the government to build more homes, bring thousands of homes back into use and re-establish social rent as a valid, long-term option.”
Ashley Campbell, policy and practice manager at Chartered Institute of Housing for Scotland, said: “We hope that provisions in the Housing Bill on domestic abuse and homelessness prevention can provide further tools to support struggling households in the future. But we also need to see decisive action now, underpinned by resources to tackle this worrying upward trend in homelessness.”
As the crisis has worsened Scottish Housing Minister, Paul McLennan has repeated the claim that Scotland has built more affordable homes than other UK nations – who also fasces their own crises.
He said: “The draft Scottish budget for next year includes a £200 million boost to the affordable housing programme, taking our total investment for 2025-26 to £768 million. We are working with partners to maximise that investment.”
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