Glasgow could see an increase in rough sleepers due to a shortfall of temporary accommodation.
The city's homelessness services are experiencing "unprecedented pressures" with the people who administer the services warning of a £16 million shortfall and that they will breach statutory duties to provide temporary accommodation.
According to the Health and Social Care Partnership in a report to Glasgow's joint integration board, there is a shortfall of around 1,600 properties with the level of demand for B&B accommodation continuing to increase.
Plans are currently underway to reduce the number of people being placed in hotels including the Charles Rennie Mackintosh which is expected to result in significant savings.
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During the first week in May, hotel and B&B numbers increased by almost 800 due to the decision of Mears and the Home Office to accelerate the numbers of people being moved out of accommodation following successful asylum claims. It's believed that it has put a further 600 households at risk.
Many service users are staying at city centre hotels for extended periods of time including a "small proportion" who declined offers of settled accommodation with others deemed 're-occurring homelessness" in hotels due to dissatisfaction with existing temporary furnished flats.
The council has also pointed to the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, which came into force in November 2022, for placing additional pressures on the city's homelessness services.
The Act removed the "local connection power" meaning that the local authority has a duty to secure settled accommodation for any unintentionally homeless household, regardless of where they were resident in Scotland prior to the application.
During a 24-week period the total cost of providing interim accommodation to ‘no local connection’ households was £284,560.
The report outlined: "Despite all attempts to mitigate risk as detailed there remains a risk that Glasgow Homelessness Services will breach statutory duties to provide emergency accommodation.
"There is also an increased likelihood of rough sleeping and hardship for service users, reputational damage, and potential judicial sanctions and additional costs.
"Decisive action will be required in order to address the current pressures. However, we equally acknowledge that any decision will potentially impact upon our statutory duties."
A council spokesperson said: “The cumulative impact of the lack of housing supply, cost-of-living crisis, inflation, changes to the asylum system, and increased numbers of people coming to Glasgow in search of accommodation is creating unprecedented pressures on homelessness services.
"We remain in continual dialogue with all of our key partners including Registered Social Landlords, third sector, Home Office and Scottish Government about the impact of these pressures and will continue to seek solutions wherever possible.”
