An end to the protection for tenants from eviction which was set up during the covid pandemic led to a huge winter surge in homelessness in West Lothian, it has been revealed.
Additional applications for council housing has put added pressure on a local service already facing overburdened waiting lists and a council overspend of more than £1m.
And councillors called for more funding to be provided from the Scottish Government to help tackle the growing crisis.
In a report councillors on the Housing Services PDSP, Sarah Kelly, Interim Housing Needs Manager said: "The largest increase in reasons for applications is through loss of tenancy/mortgage through arrears which increased by 233% followed by other eviction by the landlord, which increased by 143%.
"Both these increases were anticipated following the removal of enhanced protections on evictions which had been implemented via the emergency Covid-19 legislation."
She told the committee: "Material poverty remains a significant issue for many households and communities locally which continues to drive demand for people to seek council and Registered Social Landlord (RSL) housing as the main affordable housing option.
"The main reasons for homeless applications in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2022/23 is asked to leave at 45% compared to 32% in same period for 2021/22. The second reason is dispute within the household at 19% compared to 29% for the same period in 2021/22."
As of this month the housing department has 10,786 Common Housing Register Housing Applications, 9,881 are for council only properties, of which 862 are Homeless Applications.
Much of the Housing department's overspend is on B&B costs, averaging 140 rooms a night.
Councillor Robert de Bold, the SNP depute group leader noted the increase and asked if housing staff were seeing a rising trend as landlords reclaimed their properties and more opted for social housing in the face of growing mortgage costs.
Ms Kelly said: "We saw a spike in the Autumn as landlords to the decision to either sell up or reclaim property .
"We also saw an influx of people who had significant increases in the cost of their rent as mortgages rose.We have seen it come back down this month but we are not in position to provide trend information if that will continue. The signs are this month that it is slightly less from that route."
Conservative Councillor Alison Adamson praised staff for the report and urged all councillors to read it.
She criticised the Scottish Government for changes to legislation which she claimed lengthened housing lists in West Lothian. No money has come forward to accommodate such changes such as the removal of family connection last year which until then allowed the council to consider only those who had familial connection to the county when it came to providing housing.
Councillor Adamson said: "I think the legislators need to sit and talk with people who are on the front line who deal with homelessness on a daily basis and understand the laws that they are bringing in are not helping."
Labour's Andrew McGuire pointed out that the council had requested £3m funding to help with the Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan to tackle homelessness but had only received half of that sum.
He also praised the housing department for the numbers of sustained tenancies. "where the housing department did provide tenancies, people were happy with them and the support to maintain long and stable tenancies."
