Rising homelessness in East Renfrewshire is causing “unprecedented demand” for social housing, with supply unable to meet the need.
Figures for mid-year 2022/23 show 228 homeless presentations — with 200 eligible to be offered homes — but only 97 properties becoming available for rent.
Cllr Danny Devlin, the council’s housing convener, said the increase in homelessness is “the next pandemic in Scotland”.
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“It’s just growing and growing and growing,” he said. “We need to build more houses for a start.”
The demand from homeless applications is on top of the general waiting list for council housing, which soared from 2,800 in 2018/19 to over 4,000 by the end of 2021/22.
Cabinet members have agreed to extend changes to the council’s lettings policy, increasing the percentage of homes available to homeless people.
Cllr Devlin said: “There was a three-bedroom property allocated to a homeless family last week, and they’ve been in short-stay accommodation since July 2021, that’s not acceptable.”
He added other social landlords in East Renfrewshire “should be working more closely with the council” to increase their uptake of homeless people.
Figures, reported to councillors, reveal homeless presentations increased each year since 2018/19 to 2021/22, from 308 to 370. However, the number of empty homes available to rent was 264 in 2018/19, dropped to 222 in 2020/21 and sat at 265 in 2021/22.
A council official said as home ownership becomes “more expensive”, the number of people leaving council properties decreases and “the number of properties we have available to us also decreases”.
In June last year, the cabinet agreed to increase the percentage of new-build council homes allocated to homeless households from 25% to “up to 40%” .
It also approved lifting the percentage of existing council homes allocated to homeless people from 55% to “up to 70%”.
However, the pressure remains “significantly high” and the increase has been extended until a further update is provided in the new financial year.
Housing associations, which operate their own waiting lists, have a legal duty to help house homeless people, but a council report stated many in the area are “specialist providers” who are “rarely able to assist the needs of homeless households”.
Barrhead Housing Association (BHA) has allocated up to 40% of its empty properties to homeless people.
The council report stated: “Demand for social housing, whilst always high in East Renfrewshire, has grown significantly in the past two and a half years and pressure on homeless services continues to grow.
“There is not an adequate supply of social housing in East Renfrewshire to meet this growing need. The supply of temporary and permanent accommodation is under unprecedented demand which continues to grow.”
East Renfrewshire operates a choice based lettings approach, where applicants can bid for a property they are interested in.
Homeless people have had a three month period to bid for properties before the council makes a direct offer of accommodation.
That period has been extended to six months to provide “greater choice” as “high level of offers are being refused” with only 50% accepted.
The council official said a “big issue” is “the majority of our social housing stock is on the Levern Valley side of the local authority, the majority of the population is on the former Eastwood side of local authority”.
“People like to remain where their children are, where their jobs are, if people become homeless they like to remain in their existing geographical area, so the main problem is not just the availability of houses but the location of houses we have.”
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