Yahoo News Hundreds of Dumfries and Galloway people fear homelessness nightmare "will never come to an end"
Hundreds of people fear their homelessness nightmare “will never come to an end” in Dumfries and Galloway, it has been claimed.
And it was confirmed that the housing crisis which has gripped the region for many years has now moved to emergency status.
A report was tabled at the full meeting of Dumfries and Galloway Council on Thursday which revealed some stark facts.
Currently around 250 homeless households are stuck in temporary accommodation, while 1,060 households are currently living in conditions “below tolerable standards”.
There are also 845 households with a specialist housing need that cannot be met.
Meanwhile, the number of open homeless applications on the council’s books, as of March this year, stood at 544 – an increase of 109 per cent compared to the previous year.
North West Dumfries Councillor Paula Stevenson is appalled at the situation and called for a housing emergency to be declared, and for support to be sought from the Scottish and UK governments.
She said: “These are household figures. The number of individuals will be significantly higher, but behind these figures are individual people living in below standard accommodation, family accommodation that’s far too small for them, and people who need adaptations to live a life of quality again.
“There are many people who fear homelessness – or fear their homelessness will never come to an end. To add to the misery of every single person living in these conditions, the affordable home supply programme was cut by 22 per cent in this area.
“The RSLs (registered social landlords) in this area are under pressure to deliver quality housing, and it is important to acknowledge what they have achieved, given the pressures.
“We are limited to what we can do at council level, given the constraints of budgets – but we need to make a start.”
Stranraer and the Rhins Councillor Willie Scobie said: “There are many issues.
“It’s not only homelessness, we’ve got people in Stranraer being offered bed and breakfast in Dumfries, Annan, and further afield, and vice versa.
“That’s totally unacceptable – as it was many years ago with Shelter who frowned on bed and breakfast being used because there are no facilities in them for homeless people.
“And at that time they were putting people out at ten o’clock in the morning, and only inviting them back again at six.”
The declaration of a housing emergency follows similar approaches taken by eight other Scottish local authorities, including Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire Councils.
