EARLIER this month, I was walking home from Glasgow’s Merchant City.
One, two, three, four apparently homeless men passed me by before I spotted another man collapsed on the ground in front of the Pret a Manger just off Buchanan Street.
A bearded Portuguese tourist with a large camping bag on his back was hunched over him.
The red-haired man – who was wearing a blood-stained white and green tracksuit top – was unresponsive. He was bleeding heavily out of his right ear and had large gashes on his forehead and skull.
I checked he was breathing – which he was – and placed him into the recovery position before calling an ambulance.
As we waited, a passer-by approached and said he had spotted the man stumbling about earlier and muttering about being rejected from a homeless shelter. It was too full, apparently.
It’s a situation that has unfortunately become more and more commonplace in Scotland’s largest city.
Homelessness applications in Glasgow have soared over 47% from 2017/2018 until last year – from 5248 to 7725 – with projections for this year suggesting that number could rise to 9050.
Glasgow City Council are struggling to contain the issue.
In just a year until November last year, there was an 88% increase in the number of households in bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation – spending more than £40 million a year.
The council is getting more than 200 legal threats a month over its failure to provide suitable accommodation.
SNP councillor Allan Casey – who is the city’s homelessness convener – has said it could become “really unsustainable” if homelessness continues to rise.
It comes despite Glasgow declaring a housing emergency in December 2023, half a year before a Scotland-wide one was also announced.
Thirteen of Scotland’s 32 councils have also declared local housing emergencies in their areas.
“I think it's fair to say that a number of the issues that have caused us to declare a housing emergency are outwith our control,” Casey told The National.
“Some of it is within our control, and we need to be acting as best we possibly can on that.”
Some of the challenges Glasgow faces, Casey (below) said, include the cost of living crisis and the rise in those seeking homelessness support in Glasgow from elsewhere .
But he added that the “biggest pressure” is the UK Government's decision to fast track asylum applications – with Glasgow being one of the most significant asylum “dispersal centres” in the UK as a whole.
In April, Glasgow council called for the Home Office, responsible for UK migration policy, to stop sending asylum seekers to the city, warning it is approaching a "crisis point".
It's a move that led to much criticism from a refugee charity.
The council has made attempts to address the issue, with Casey requesting a meeting with Home Office minister Angela Eagle (below). Her trip was cancelled at the last minute and has not been rescheduled.
“We've given multiple chances now for Angela Eagle and UK Government ministers to engage with the city,” he said.
“I think the continual refusal to engage is a slap in the face to Glaswegians, to be honest with you. I think it's a complete betrayal of the city.”
Casey added: “Myself and the leader of the council made ourselves available at any time, any point, anywhere to come and meet with the UK Government to have positive constructive engagement. To not even respond to those requests, I think it's deeply shameful.”
Asked what more the Scottish Government could be doing, Casey said the council was “disappointed” when the decision was made to reduce the amount of funding coming from the affordable housing supply programme.
“But we understood the reasons for that in terms of the costs of capital spending at UK Government level,” he added.
“I think the other thing to be positive about the Scottish Government is we've had record amount of funding coming towards us to bring empty homes back in terms of our acquisition program.
“So that's brought record numbers of long-term vacant houses in our city back into productive use working alongside registered social landlords.”
Casey stressed building more affordable homes is the way forward, which is a point that Shelter Scotland have also long stressed.
The Scottish Government has committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent.
Between March 2022 and June 2024, 22,743 affordable homes have been built – or 21% of the target.
A strong start, the Scottish Government would argue. But opposition parties are stressing it’s not coming fast enough.
And it appears to be slowing. Some 4755 new homes were begun in 2024/25 according to The Herald – a 30% drop from the previous year when there were 6942 homes started.
“Scotland has now got a dysfunctional system around providing housing,” Dan Fyffe-Jardine, Shelter Scotland's assistant director, told The National.
“If we take Glasgow as an example, Glasgow declared a housing emergency at the end of 2023. And, ultimately, since then things have gotten worse. There are 6500 homeless applications in Glasgow right now.”
He added: “This morning, 3500 children woke up in Glasgow in temporary accommodation, which is more than the equivalent in the whole of Wales – which is in a housing emergency too. But their figures are coming down while ours are spiraling.
“[And] behind those figures there are people. This week we've been dealing with large families living in single hotel rooms. We've been dealing with a family in a second floor flat provided as temporary accommodation who have a son in a wheelchair and there's no lift to get into it.
“So, ultimately, it's an emergency because this is a systemic issue. Glasgow and other local authorities don't have the resources that they need to provide people with homes and provide their legal duties around homelessness.”
Fyffe-Jardine said that “business as usual” isn’t going to solve the issue and said the Scottish Government has to “stop hiding” behind the statistics showing Scotland has built more homes than in England.
“It's taken us more than 10 years of political decisions to get into this place. it's becoming the new normal and that's the real danger where it's considered standard for every 16 minutes a household loses their home in Scotland,” he said.
“Failing better than your neighbours is still failing. This Scottish Government is talking a lot about ending child poverty.
“My question would be how do you end child poverty without ending child homelessness? And you can't end child homelessness unless you invest in building more homes and invest in homeless services.”
Scottish Government data revealed that as of September 30 last year, there are a record 10,360 children living in temporary accommodation – which Scotland’s new Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan (above) described as “completely unacceptable”.
The SNP’s rising star – tipped to be a potential future leader – was nominated to the position by the First Minister the very day she returned from maternity leave earlier this month.
“Mairi McAllan has been tasked with tackling the housing emergency,” John Swinney said afterwards.
It’s an enormous task for the 32-year-old MSP, who spoke with The National that same day.
Sat in front of a stack of papers and notes in her Holyrood office, McAllan said she "will not accept things not improving".
"I think it is a bit like turning a tank around sometimes though, but I want to see quick progress," she added.
McAllan also said the housing brief becoming a Cabinet position for the first showed the “importance” the Scottish Government is placing on the issue.
“I can't wait actually to get started, to get to know all of the actors in the industry, to understand what's been working to date, because I will defend the Scottish Government's record, but we now need to ramp up our actions rapidly in order to be commensurate with the scale of the challenge,” she added.
The new Housing Bill, is also currently at Stage 2, with MSPs set to debate amendments in the coming months. It includes plans to cap rent rises at a maximum of 6% for tenants living in rent control areas.
But Scotland’s housing woes and homelessness crisis will need much more than that. And the UK Government, Scottish Government and local authorities all have a crucial part to play.
The man who I found collapsed just off Glasgow’s Buchanan Street eventually regained consciousness.
He screamed and yelled incoherently then started to cry on my shoulder as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. It took almost 30 minutes.
The paramedics suggested he should be okay as we loaded him onto a stretcher.
That night, at least, he had a bed and roof over his head.
