Not expecting Christmas miracle to fix housing emergency - Susan Dalgety

It’s the week before Christmas, and across the city hundreds of children will be spending tonight in temporary accommodation. And that is where they will still be on Christmas morning, and for many more mornings after that.

Edinburgh families currently living in temporary accommodation will have to stay there for an average of 611 days before being offered a permanent home

Last month, Edinburgh City Council declared a housing emergency, the first Scottish city to do so.

And last week, at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar revealed that Edinburgh families currently living in temporary accommodation will have to stay there for an average of 611 days before being offered a permanent home. That is 20 months in a hostel, hotel room or small, cramped flat.

A recent briefing paper on Edinburgh’s housing emergency by Shelter Scotland exposed the terrible reality of life in temporary accommodation. One family were forced to live for two months in a place that had no cooking facilities. They were told to take drinking water from the shower.

A single parent with three teenage children, one of them a wheelchair user, was moved from hotel room to hotel room for months, at one point having to move outside Edinburgh.

Imagine spending Christmas in such circumstances. Nowhere to cook even the smallest turkey or heat up a tin of soup. No room for a Christmas tree, or anywhere to hide gifts from curious children. No hope. Only the prospect of spending next Christmas in the same terrible Dickensian circumstances.

I understand the economics of Edinburgh’s housing market that has put even the most modest tenement flat out of reach for many people.

I know that our city’s universities are now such a draw for international students that the city centre is full of brand-spanking new rental complexes for young people from across the world, while 20-somethings from Sighthill are forced to live at home, unable to afford even a flat-share.

And I accept that the city council is trying its best to fulfil its own target of securing 1,111 new social homes for rent every year – except it is failing miserably. Less than half (451) were delivered last year.

But, even given Edinburgh’s housing emergency, there is no earthly reason why children should be forced to spend any night, let alone Christmas Eve, in a room where they cannot even get a glass of water. This is 2023, not 1823.

I am not expecting a Christmas miracle. But how does any politician sleep at night knowing that there are nearly 10,000 children across Scotland spending Christmas this way?

The First Minister, Humza Yousaf, was unwell last Thursday, so his deputy Shona Robison answered Anas Sarwar on his behalf when he asked if the Scottish Government was ashamed of so many families living in temporary accommodation.

She responded, as politicians are wont to do, with jargon. She talked of target plans, task and finish groups and a transition to rapid rehousing.

And she promised that this week’s budget will show how committed the SNP/Green government is to reducing the use of temporary accommodation – in the longer term. Meanwhile, across our city, children will be spending Christmas in a crowded hotel room, because there is no room for them in Edinburgh’s broken housing market.