The number of homeless people in Edinburgh has increased by 258 individuals since the first quarter of 2021 - representing a 64 percent increase.
Forecasts from both Jill Thomson, the City of Edinburgh Council's interim Head of Homelessness, and Gordon MacRae, assistant director for communications and policy at Shelter Scotland, anticipate that those numbers will continue to grow as the city’s housing situation worsens.
“I fully expect we’ll see the numbers return to and exceed pre-Covid levels before long,” Mr MacRae said. “It’s difficult to speculate the future but I do anticipate that we’ll see the figures for homelessness continue growing month on month until full protections are put in place to keep people in their homes.