Meeting of the Parliament 02 October 2024
I thank the Labour Party for using its debating time to debate the motion on the housing emergency. I also thank the organisations that have provided helpful briefings ahead of the debate.
At the election in 2021, every party in this chamber signed up to work to end rough sleeping in Scotland by the end of this parliamentary session. However, that goal is now further away than ever, with the latest statistics showing a significant increase. In 2022-23, there were 450 incidences in which local authorities were unable to offer temporary accommodation. In the space of the past year, that has soared to 7,915 occasions. Indeed, the Salvation Army has questioned the accuracy of those reported numbers—it thinks that the total is higher and that the situation is much worse on the ground.
However, these are not just statistics. As Anas Sarwar said, these are our friends, our neighbours and, in some cases, our family members.
On Monday evening, I walked along Princes Street here in the capital and witnessed people setting up tents for the night in shop doorways. As a Lothian MSP, I know from trying to assist constituents and from the organisations that work with people who are experiencing homelessness that the situation is getting worse, but solutions are also becoming more limited. Where I live in Edinburgh, I have witnessed people setting up tents in graveyards. The capital is at the epicentre of the housing emergency in Scotland. We need a new approach, and we need the situation to be treated as an emergency by ministers now.