ALMOST 40 children became homeless in Scotland each day last year, charity Shelter has revealed.

The Scottish Government says preventing the problem is a key priority. But Alison Watson, deputy director of the housing and homelessness charity, described the situation as an “emergency” and described the figure, which is based on new analysis, as “damning of our society”.

She said: “For the equivalent of a class and a half of schoolchildren to be made homeless everyday just isn’t right.”

According to Shelter Scotland, 14,075 children were in households assessed as being homeless in 2017/18 – the equivalent of six or seven children in every school.

On one day in March, 6615 children were living in temporary accommodation and the figure is said to mark the fourth consecutive year in which the scale of the problem has increased.

Papers published by the organisation show households with children spend an average of 25% longer living in temporary accommodation than those without – and 13% lack a permanent base for a year or longer.

On the wider implications, Watson stated: “Homelessness has a drastic impact on many areas of children and young people’s mental health, physical health, and educational attainment. Homeless children are three to four times more likely to have mental health problems than other children, even one year after being rehoused.”

She went on: “The sheer scale of homelessness among children in Scotland is damning on our society. The fact families with children then have to endure the limbo of temporary accommodation longer than other homeless households just compounds their misery.

“This has got to stop. We must find ways of supplying enough permanent accommodation for homeless families and individuals.”

Calling for action to provide more – and cheaper – homes, Watson continued: “At the heart of the problem is the acute shortage of housing. We need to build many more truly affordable homes of the right type in places where people want to live in order to fix our housing emergency.”

Shelter analysis shows that, on average, households spent 171 days – almost six months – in temporary accommodation last year.

Responding, the Scottish Government said: “We are clear that one person being made homeless is too many, particularly in households which include children. This is why preventing homelessness is one of our key priorities.

“While temporary accommodation provides an important safety net in emergency situations, we want any time there to be as short as possible.

“Last month, our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, which included Shelter Scotland on its membership, set out a comprehensive suite of recommendations to tackle homelessness and we are now working with local authorities and a range of partners to put these into action.

“This includes a significant £21 million investment to support local authorities in achieving a transformation of the system, to support people at times of crisis, while also taking an important step towards transforming the system and offering rapid routes back to settled housing.”

Earlier this year Housing Minister Kevin Stewart revealed almost 70,900 affordable homes had been built between April 2007 and September 2017. The supply of lower-cost accommodation per capita was found to be one third higher than that in England over the same period.

In 2016, ministers set out plans to build 50,000 affordable homes during the lifetime of this parliament, with 35,000 of these to be created for the social rented sector.

However, the average number completed per quarter since mid-2016 was 1800, far short of the 2700 necessary to reach hit the stated target by 2021.

Announcing investment for 1000 affordable homes in June, Stewart insisted the Scottish Government was “delivering on our target”, adding: “Affordable housing is about more than just bricks and mortar. We want everyone to have a safe, warm home.”