Turning the tide on homelessness: creating safe, secure homes for all

Image © Living Rent

Samantha Austin loves her new home in Closeburn, a village in Dumfries & Galloway, southwest Scotland: “We are so happy – it has been amazing to finally have somewhere secure after being made homeless with two young children,” she says.

Samantha’s new home is one of three in the village developed by the Nith Valley Leaf Trust, with the support of South of Scotland Community Housing (SOSCH), an organisation that supports the planning and delivery of community-led housing in Scotland.

The lack of suitable housing in the area, particularly for families, was causing people to move away from the village. In a bid to address the issue, the Nith Valley Leaf Trust purchased land from the council, and, with the support of SOSCH, started building work on site in summer 2019.

By August 2020, they had completed three houses, and three families have since moved into an affordable, secure home, with five children between them. The children attend the local village school, and the adults all work in and around the village, supporting the local economy.

Samantha’s experience of being made homeless with her family is sadly all too common. In 2024, the Scottish Government declared a ‘national housing emergency’.¹ Recent statistics show that more than 17,200 households are currently trapped in temporary accommodation, a six per cent increase in one year, impacting over 10,000 children.^2,3

In addition, nearly 250,000 people are on waiting lists for a social home across Scotland, and 40,688 households have applied to their local council for help with homelessness last year. On average, those in temporary accommodation wait 238 days for a settled home.⁴

Maggie Brünjes of Homeless Network Scotland believes that it doesn’t have to be this way. “We believe a future without homelessness is possible,” she says. “In Scotland, we’ve never known more about homelessness and its solutions. But the data paints a different picture: homelessness is rising, and people are spending longer than ever without a settled home.”

A raft of legislation, often described as some of the most comprehensive in the world, gives people living in Scotland strong rights when it comes to homelessness. The new Housing Bill, passed in November 2025, creates a robust legal framework intended to prevent homelessness. It places new duties on a range of relevant bodies, including police and health services, to ‘ask and act’ on homelessness.

“The act is a step towards making homelessness prevention everyone’s business,” says Maggie. People experiencing homelessness and the people who support them have long worked toward the measures that have been included in the new act. For example, Homeless Network Scotland supports a team of peer researchers that provided the evidence base for the new legislation.

The Govan Law Centre supports people facing homelessness with the legal support they need to ensure they can stay in their homes or receive appropriate services. It has specialist solicitors, caseworkers, and financial and welfare rights advisers based in its offices in Govan and Govanhill in Glasgow. The team manages to prevent homelessness in nine out of every ten cases that come to them.⁵ This extraordinary work was recognised at this year’s Scottish Legal Awards, where the team won the legal champion award.

“It is such a privilege to work at Govan Law Centre, using the law every day to help people,” says Lorna Walker, the head of prevention of homelessness services at the Govan Law Centre.

Living Rent is Scotland’s tenants and community union. Its members have built branches and groups across the country over the last decade. Members have built expertise through their own experiences as renters, and by working together to ensure everyone has a secure and affordable home.

By working with other Living Rent members, Edinburgh renter Lucas was able to get a rent reduction of GBP 175 per month for six months, when an unrepaired plumbing blockage left him unable to use the shower or sinks in his flat. Living Rent brought the matter to the attention of his landlady, who then carried out repairs and compensated Lucas with more than GBP 1,000.

Edinburgh is a vibrant and exciting city, which attracts visitors from all over the world. In 2024, there were over five million overnight tourist visits to the city and surrounding area.⁶ While tourism contributes to a thriving economy, it also pushes up costs for residents, especially when homes are converted into short term rentals for visitors. Living Rent members encouraged the city council in Edinburgh to commit money raised from a new tourist tax to be spent on council housing. The council agreed, and now GBP 5 million a year from the visitor levy paid by those who stay in hotels will enable the City council to borrow a further GBP 150 million to build new council and affordable homes.

The tourist tax funding is significant because new affordable housing is much needed in Edinburgh, where a shortage of council and affordable homes has led the city to suspend new lettings of its own council-owned homes, except to families who are experiencing homelessness. The suspension forms part of the city council’s own housing emergency response. The work of organisations like Living Rent and SOSCH is already proving vital in delivering solutions that enable more decent, affordable homes to be built in Scotland.

Oak’s Housing and Homelessness Programme supports organisations that help people enjoy the safety and security that Samantha and her family have found in their new home. “We seek to support different models of community ownership that benefit people with the greatest housing need,” says Oak’s director of the Housing and Homelessness Programme, Brian Robson. “We know that housing is the solution to homelessness, and would like to see increased supply of genuinely affordable and decent homes – in Scotland and elsewhere.”

“Strengthened laws are a huge step forward, but as experience in Scotland shows, they can mean little without the availability of homes. Like our grantees in Scotland, we believe a future without homelessness is possible – and we are supporting efforts towards a future where more people live in decent, affordable homes.”

Oak’s Housing and Homelessness Programme supports South of Scotland Community Housing, Homeless Network Scotland, Govan Law Centre and Living Rent. A safe and secure home helps build strong communities where everyone can thrive and live dignified lives, and to this end, we support housing and homelessness not-for-profit organisations in the UK and US to end homelessness and create housing opportunity.

References:
_{1: BBC News. Scottish government declares national housing emergency. BBC News, n.d. Available at: bbc.com/news(Accessed 23 February 2026).
2: Scottish Government. Homelessness in Scotland: 2024-25. 16 September 2025. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/ publications/homelessness-in scotland-2024-25/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
3: See, for example: King, Fiona. “Scotland: Delivering a Right to Housing.” Journal of Law and Social Policy 24. (2015): 155-161. Available at: doi.org/10.60082/0829 3929.1214 https://digitalcommons.osgoode. yorku.ca/jlsp/vol24/iss1/9(Accessed 23 February 2026).
4: Homeless Network Scotland. Scotland urged to put ‘housing justice’ at the heart of next election. 27 October 2025. Available at: homelessnetwork. scot/2025/10/27/scotland-urged-to-put housing-justice-at-the-heart-of-next-election/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
5: Govan Law Centre. Homelessness services. n.d. Available at: govanlawcentre.org/prevention of-homelessness-project/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
6: Visit Scotland. Edinburgh and the Lothians – Research. n.d. Available at: visitscotland.org/research insights/regions/edinburgh-lothians (Accessed 23 February 2026).}