A homelessness charity has threatened to take Glasgow City Council to court, claiming it broke the law more than 3,000 times last year, leaving desperate people with nowhere to stay.
Shelter Scotland said it had prepared a legal case against the council and would seek a judicial review at the Court of Session if Glasgow failed to respond.
The charity claimed the number of homeless households turned away despite being legally entitled to temporary or emergency accommodation had risen from 3,025 last year to 3,365 according to the most recent statistics.
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However the council said Shelter should use its resources to work with the city's hard-pressed services to face up to the challenge of homelessness, rather than raising money for legal action.
Launching a crowd-funding campaign "The People vs Glasgow City Council" Shelter outlined its intention to seek a judicial review in a solicitor's letter delivered to the council today.
The letter was hand-delivered by a delegation of formerly homeless people and Shelter said they were inviting the public to join the court action and show that the people of Glasgow will not accept vulnerable citizens’ legal rights being routinely ignored.
The charity said improvements had been promised after a report by the Scottish Housing Regulator last year showed of 10,350 occasions when Glasgow had a duty to make an offer of temporary or emergency accommodation to a homeless household, it had made an offer in only 60 per cent of them.
The council claims that figures overstate the number of occasions individuals encounter services and understate the number of offers made, and says it actually met its legal duty on 88 per cent of occasions.
Read more: SNP 'blame game' over Glasgow homeless cuts revealed
But Shelter said the most recent statistics showed the situation has got worse not better with people "forced back on the streets" 3,365 times compared to 3,025 occasions the previous year.
It said the legal letter giving the council notice of its intentions also outlined the means by which Glasgow City Council could avoid court action - for exampe by explaining how it plans to increase its stock of emergency and temporary accommodation. But Shelter said it could no longer tolerate peoples legal right to a home being 'routinely denied'.
Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said: “The facts are clear; Glasgow City Council is breaking the law; homeless people are being forced onto the streets; officials are unable or unwilling to tackle the problem; and the numbers are getting worse not better.
“Rights are not a privilege - they are a legal entitlement enforceable by law and GCC should not be allowed to disregard the law with impunity.
"I hope that the City Council will respond positively to our lawyer’s letter today and avoid the need for court, but there may be little choice.
"If the judicial review goes ahead then Shelter Scotland will ask the Court to declare that Glasgow City Council are acting unlawfully and that they should prepare and submit to Scottish Ministers a revised homelessness strategy that puts a plan in place to guarantee temporary accommodation for every homeless person that needs it.”
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A Glasgow City Council spokesman said differences in recording around the country contributed to possible overcounting of the number of people turned away in the city. He added: "[Shelter's] own letter also accepts that there may have been over reporting in Glasgow which demonstrates they know their accusation of gatekeeping is also untrue."
“As they are well aware, there are significant pressures on our homelessness accommodation service and we are working with the Scottish Housing Regulator and partners in the third and housing sectors to tackle these challenges.
“Rather than raising money for court action – it would be helpful if Shelter worked constructively with us, to tackle the pressing issue of homelessness. We share a common aim and threats of legal action are an unhelpful distraction to this crucial work.”
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