A "scandalous" 36 homeless people have died at six hotels in Glasgow which have been used to protect their wellbeing as the numbers in temporary accommodation across the nation have soared.

Concerns have been raised over the death toll which has been blamed on "dumping" vulnerable people in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Campaigners have raised concerns that B&B's and hotels are 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 death toll confirmed by Police Scotland shows that eight people died at St Enoch Hotel, with four at the Chez Nous Guest House and one at Hillhead Hotel.

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Nine have died Alexander Thomson Hotel, with seven passing away at the city’s Queens Park Hotel while there another seven at the Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel.

The deaths have happened after March 2020, with most believed to be during the pandemic and related to drug overdoses.

The Herald:

It comes as the number of applications received by councils during 2021/22 from households looking for help with homelessness soared by 4% on the previous year to just over 35,000.

There were 14,214 households in temporary accommodation according to the housing regulator in March, 2022- a rise of 20% from 2020.

The Scottish Tenants' Organisation which has been examining the state of homes for the homeless said there needed to be a public inquiry into the "needless" deaths.

"Glasgow City Council claim they provided 24/7 wraparound services in these hotels for drug and alcohol addiction as well as mental health care when in actual fact homeless people in hotels have told us that they were left on their own being left to fend for themselves in often squalid and unsuitable accommodation," the STO said.

"It is clear that we need to build thousands of socially rented homes in Scotland. "

Shelter Scotland said the issues around people being housed in poor temporary accommodation exists because there is not enough afforable homes being built across the country.

Shelter Scotland director Alison Watson, said: “There will always be a need for some temporary accommodation however, it will never be a substitute for a safe, secure, permanent home and there is an enormous over reliance on it in Scotland.

“People across the country are being forced to endure grim conditions in unsuitable accommodation and this situation exists because of a chronic lack of social housing.

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“The Scottish Government knows that the only way to tackle homelessness is to deliver more social homes. Despite that, the recent budget slashed funding for new social homes while the Scottish Housing Regulator has highlighted the risk of systemic failure within local authority homelessness services.

“The next First Minister has been set up to fail on homelessness. If they don’t change course as a priority then the ongoing housing emergency in Scotland will simply become the new normal.”

Flowers are due to be laid by up to 50 housing campaigners at St Enoch Hotel this morning (Tues) in a simple ceremony to remember those who have died in temporary accommodation.

The Herald:

The concerns have arisen after the housing regulator said the city council had failed in its legal duties to homeless people before the pandemic by failing to ensure there was enough suitable temporary accommodation.

Councils have a statutory obligation to offer temporary accommodation when they assess a person or household as unintentionally homeless. Most councils meet this obligation all of the time.

During 2019/20, the council admitted it failed to offer temporary accommodation on 3,786 instances when households required it - an increase of 445 on the previous year.

This meant the council "failed" to comply with its "statutory duty" to offer temporary accommodation in nearly 1 in 3 occasions when people required it.

The regulator said single people were "disproportionately affected" and accounted for 66% of homeless applications and for 83% of those not offered temporary accommodation.

The inquiry found that in some cases the people not accommodated were vulnerable and had approached the council for accommodation on multiple occasions.

In a review of a sample of of 2178 household presentations not offered accommodation they found that the council did not offer homes to 202 households with children. An inquiry was launched in 2019 after Shelter Scotland launched legal action against Glasgow City Council over its practice of “gatekeeping” – where people who present as homeless are refused their legal rights.

Earlier this month it emerged that cases of Scots councils failing to meet their legal duty to accommodate Scotland's homeless have soared by 20% in a year.

In 2021/22 there were 725 instances where there was failure to provide temporary accommodation, of which Edinburgh accounted for 695.

In 2020/21 there was a failure to accommodate in 595 cases.

But in Glasgow there were fewer than four failures to accommodate cases in 2021/22 as it sought to combat its non-compliance.

The housing regulator has warned of an "emerging risk of systematic failure" in local authority homelessness services as some councils are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the challenges of providing services for those who are homeless and meet their statutory duties.

Some housing campaigners feared that the number failing to offer temporary accommodation is far higher as it only applies to those that meet the councils' criteria of being unintentionally homeless.

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator of the STO said the deaths were a "scandal" and said additional funding was need to provide wraparound services for the homeless.

Harhill Ltd, operator of four of the hotels which cater mainly for homeless people who are referred to them by Glasgow City Council were contacted for comment. They are the Queens Park Hotel, the St Enoch Hotel, Hillhead Hotel and Chez Nous.

RMG Hotels, which run the Alexander Thomson and Rennie Mackintosh Station were also contact.

A Glasgow council spokeswoman said: “It is regrettable that people who experience homelessness and have complex health care needs die while residing in temporary accommodation, however accommodation is not the cause of death.

“Our Homeless Services made 31,018 offers of emergency accommodation since March 2020, resulting in historically low numbers of rough sleepers in the city. They also ensured support is accessible through our Complex Needs Service and our Mental Health and Third Sector partners who operate on an outreach basis across the city’s hotels.

“Naloxone training has been provided to staff within the hotels as well as mental health and harm reduction awareness training delivered by our health and social staff. “Service users residing in hotels are routinely assessed for eligibility for Housing First as well as other types of accommodation and we remain focused on moving people to more settled accommodation. We also have a dedicated team deploying health and social care support to every service user residing in hotels so they have an up-to-date safeguarding plan focusing on treatment and care plans as well as their move on plans.”

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A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We know experience of multiple forms of extreme disadvantage – including homelessness, poor mental health and opioid dependence – is linked to higher rates of ill health and premature death. We are doing all we can to address these disadvantages, working to strengthening partnerships between health and homelessness services as part of our National Mission to reduce drug related deaths, backed by £250 million investment over the life of the Parliament.

“Glasgow City Council is working through its Transforming Temporary Accommodation strategy to ensure that homeless households spend much shorter periods in temporary accommodation and, when required, can access temporary accommodation that is of high quality. The Scottish Government has also brought in a new requirement that no homeless household should be placed in unsuitable accommodation, such as hotels or B&Bs, for more than seven days.”