SOME 256 homeless people died last year in Scotland, a near 20% annual rise - with more than half of the fatalities drug-related.

The official figures produced by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) reveal a death toll during the pandemic that was higher than was first thought by homeless-support charities

There were 40 more deaths of homeless people in 2020 compared to 2019.

And some 59% of  homeless deaths in Scotland (59%) were drug-related, the figures suggest.

Eight per cent of deaths were due to circulatory diseases such as heart disease and stroke and five per cent due to cancers. There were no deaths where the underlying cause was COVID-19.”

The Scottish Tenant Organisation described the new homeless death rate as "shameful" and raised concerns that 71 percent of deaths were related to drugs, alcohol and suicides.

Official figures for 2019 showed that Scotland had the highest homeless death rate when compared to England and Wales, with a rate of 52.2 per million population aged 15-74 compared to 18.0 in England and 14.3 in Wales.

West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and South Ayrshire had the highest rates of homeless deaths within Scotland while six local authority areas had no deaths.

Six local authority areas had no deaths - Angus, Argyll and Bute, East Renfrewshire, Orkney Islands, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands.

The Herald:

East Renfrewshire has had no identified homeless deaths for four consecutive years The report includes a monthly breakdown which shows the number of deaths was consistently higher during the months of May to September 2020 than in previous years.

The death toll has come despite the offer of hotel accommodation to prevent deaths from Covid-19.

When lockdown began in March, hundreds of rough sleepers were brought in off the streets to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

With temporary accommodation full, many were placed in hotels. But campaigners raised concerns that that B&B's and hotels were not fit to deal with people in crisis and that consequently homeless people were losing out on access to drug and alcohol addiction services and mental health care.

The experimental figures are compiled by examining death registration records to find people who were either in temporary accommodation or were sleeping rough before they died.

The NRS said the figures were a conservative estimate and the true figure was probably higher.

Most of those who died (77%) were male (197 deaths) and the common age bracket for men dying while homeless is 45-54 and for women it is 35-44.

NRS head of vital events, Julie Ramsay, said: “While these statistics help our understanding of this issue, it’s important to understand these figures are currently experimental and the methodology is under development.

“The estimated number of people dying while experiencing homelessness has risen consistently over the past three years. Improvements to the data sources and the ability to identify whether a person was homeless may partly explain some of this increase since 2017."

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “It’s shocking that even more people died while experiencing homelessness last year. Behind every one of these statistics is a real person, with friends and families. They formed a part of our communities and they will be missed.

“Homelessness is an injustice, but it is also a public health emergency. Far too many lives have been cut short and many of these deaths will have been avoidable. That is unacceptable.

“We need to learn from these failings and put in place measures to stop this from happening again. We’ve long known how damaging homelessness can be for someone’s health and it is vital that we act now to prevent people from losing their homes. That means public services, including health bodies, asking about someone’s housing situation, then acting to help if they need it.

“Homelessness is not inevitable. By working together we can end it.”

Sean Clerkin, campaigns co-ordinator for the Scottish Tenants' Organisation said: "The Scottish Government has to accept full responsibility for this avoidable disaster. They never listened and they have failed to act year after year of increasing homeless deaths. They should hold their heads in shame.

"We need to build thousands more quality social homes for homeless people so that homeless people and their families do not linger in squalid substandard temporary accommodation on their own.Secondly we need to access homeless people to joined up services for mental health, drugs and alcohol.

"Thirdly to further prevent a tsunami of homelessness in future the Scottish Government has to bring in an eviction ban and firm rent controls to protect tenants and their families being put out on the streets."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Every death of a person experiencing homelessness is a tragedy, and the Scottish Government remains committed to ending homelessness and rough sleeping for good. Temporary accommodation offers an important safety net for anyone who finds themselves homeless but it should only ever be temporary.

“Our priority has been to keep people safe during the pandemic but this has inevitably resulted in higher numbers in temporary accommodation. Local authorities are working hard to ensure people have the appropriate support and move as rapidly as possible into settled accommodation. The Scottish Government has invested £37.5 million to support councils in this work.”