THE amount of time homeless families with children are spending in temporary accommodation in Scotland has risen by almost 20 per cent in the past two years, according to a new report.
The homeless charity Shelter Scotland report found families with children spent around one million days in local authority temporary homeless accommodation in 2015-16 out of a total provision of 3.8 million days.
The report states the median time families with children spent in homeless accommodation in 2016 was 20.1 weeks – more than four months – up from 17 weeks in 2014 and 17.8 weeks in 2015.
Families without children spent less time in temporary accommodation, with a median of 13.5 weeks.
In response to Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Government said it wanted the time families have to spend in homeless accommodation to be “as short as possible”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “While progress is being made on overall homelessness, Scottish legislation ensures that households with children are placed in temporary accommodation while they wait for appropriate, sustainable permanent accommodation.
“We have committed to investing over £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over the next five years.”
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