A protest is being organised in Glasgow today over the rising numbers of homeless people either sleeping rough or languishing in temporary accommodation in the wake of ministers finally accepting there is a housing emergency.

The Herald can reveal that in Scotland's biggest city some 2544 children are living in temporary accommodation.

And the number of homeless people in the city living in temporary accommodation - because settled homes cannot be found has soared from 6465 in December 2022 to 7266 as of April 1.

And the numbers having to be placed in hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation has more than doubled over the same period from 618 to 1590.

The new protest comes in a continued "campaign of resistance" which began nearly two weeks ago when demonstrators visited the offices of outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf.

READ MORE: 'Not enough': 100s of millions extra needed a year to end Scots housing emergency

Concerns over Scotland's ability to deal with the homeless crisis has been further sparked by the numbers forced to sleep rough in Glasgow rising by more than 50% during the winter.

A count conducted at the end of April, last year confirmed that rough sleeping numbers in Glasgow was still “in single figures”.

But it has emerged that the rate of homeless people who told the council that it was forced to sleep on the streets for at least one night before seeking assistance rose from an average of 56 a month in the five months from June 1 to November 1, last year to 82 per month between November 1, 2023 and February 1 this year.

There were 524 who told the council between June 1, last year and February 1 this year that they had either slept rough in the three months prior to seeking homelessness assistance. Between June and November last year it was 292. But there are fears the numbers could be even higher, as the city council figures rely on a self-declaration by people seeking homeless assistance.

The 'enough is enough' protest is planned for outside the Glasgow City Chambers is calling on the council to act on providing proper accommodation for the homeless. A letter is due to be handed to the council leader Susan Aitken this morning as part of the protest calling for more investment in settled housing.

The Scottish Tenants Organisation, which has been tracking the levels of homelessness in the city, accused the council of breaking the law on providing accommodation for the homeless through the large increase of those being forced to live on the streets.

Councils have an legal obligation to offer temporary accommodation when they assess a person or household as unintentionally homeless.

"The protest is a heartfelt moral call to the authorities for homeless people to be given permanent warm, dry and secure homes to live in," the group said.

"We need instead thousands of new social rented homes to be built in Glasgow as well as retrofitting over 2,600 empty homes into dry, warm and secure home for homeless people with the new John Swinney led Scottish Government giving Glasgow the extra financial resources it needs to tackle this housing and homeless tsunami.

"This also needs to be replicated throughout Scotland when we are facing a housing and homeless disaster."

Scotland's housing regulator launched a local authorities intervention in January over what they have declared as a "systemic failure" in dealing with a homelessness crisis in Scotland.

The body, which has powers to protect tenants' rights, has set engagement plans for two of Scotland's biggest councils, Glasgow City Council and the City of Edinburgh Council which have both registered housing emergencies.

It comes as it emerged that in the wake of action after a housing regulator inquiry over Glasgow's past failure to provide temporary accommodation to the homeless when needed, it has been dogged with more legal breaches.

Both councils were to hold meetings with the regulator over the state of their services and are expected to provide assurance of best efforts to provide suitable temporary accommodation for the homeless, in line with their legal duty.

They were also being told to make "best efforts" to meet its statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation when it should and to comply with the Unsuitable Accommodation Order.

The body warned ministers in February that there was an "emerging risk of systemic failure" in local authority homelessness services as some councils were finding it "increasingly difficult" to deal with the challenges of providing services for those who are homeless and meet their legal duties.

And it said that tackling the challenges of providing services for those who are homeless and meeting statutory duties may need to be a "principal priority" for the coming period for the Scottish Government, councils and others working to meet the needs of people who are homeless.

The regulator, whose statutory objective is to safeguard and promote the interests of 600,000 tenants who live in homes provided by social landlords, 120,000 property owners and the tens of thousands who experience homelessness, says the risk has become a reality.

And in a message to ministers, the regulator said "added urgency" is needed from the Scottish Government to bring forward measures to respond to the challenges councils are now experiencing.

The regulator said that "systemic failure requires a systemic intervention that is beyond our regulatory powers".

The action has been taken in relation to Glasgow City Council and The City of Edinburgh Council as the regulator said they were "impacted by this systemic failure in homelessness services".

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator for the STO said: "Homeless services must be provided with extra emergency funding to improve temporary accommodation and to end homeless people being sent to substandard hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation.

"It has to be the highest priority of the Scottish Government to give extra resources to local authorities to build and renovate tens of thousands of good standard homes for homeless men women and children to live in and end the moral evil of homelessness once and for all."

Housing campaigners converged on Mr Yousaf's Govan offices two weeks ago to protest at the cuts and demand that more money is pumped into provision of affordable housing in what they call the start of a "campaign of resistance" that was to be "ramped up".

Concerns about how the Scottish Government is tackling the housing crisis emerged after what housing campaigners said was a "staggering" £196.08m (26%) cut to the budget in the past year alone, without taking into account inflation, with the spending plans for 2024/25 set at £555.862m before the extra £40m promised by the First Minister.

A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health and Social Care Partnership - an amalgamation of Glasgow City Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which delivers community health and social care services - said: “It’s not an insignificant feat that we are providing emergency and temporary accommodation to more than 7000 people when it is well documented that the housing system in Glasgow is experiencing significant pressure.

"There is no council housing in Glasgow and we rely on registered social landlords (RSLs) who have high demands in terms of housing need to meet, as well as in relation to homelessness. We work well with these RSLs and they are committed to providing us with accommodation but currently demand outstrips availability which means people are spending longer in emergency and temporary accommodation than any of us would want.

“We declared a housing emergency last year due to the cumulative impact of pressures on the city in relation to housing and homelessness and expanded our use of bed and breakfast in an attempt to meet the current demands for homelessness assistance and avoid people having to sleep rough.”