Scottish Government urged to commit £100m for work to help prevent homelessness

The Scottish Government is being urged to commit £100 million of funding in Holyrood’s Budget to help fulfil a key requirement of legislation aimed at tackling homelessness.

Economic analysis carried out for the homelessness charity, Crisis Scotland, suggests public bodies will need to spend £49 million in 2027 and a further £48 million from January to October 2028 to enact new duties aimed at preventing people from losing their home.

Form November 2028, public bodies – such as health boards, Police Scotland, Social Security Scotland and others – will be required to ask if people they are dealing with are at risk of losing their home, with early action required when this is the case.

These “ask and act” duties are being brought in as part of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 – with Crisis describing them as “genuinely ground-breaking new laws”.

But the analysis, carried out by Alma Economics, showed there is a “need for upfront investment in training, workforce development, data-sharing capability and IT integration” for this to happen.

“Estimated costs across public bodies are £49 million in 2027 and £48 million in 2028 (January-October),” the Changing Course report added.

When the new systems are in place, there will then be annual operational costs of between £35 and £38 million a year, it said, although the report also stressed that effective homelessness prevention could save the public purse an average of £9,266 per person per year in direct expenditure.

Crisis is recommending the Scottish Government use its Budget on December 3 to allocate “£100 million of funding for a pre-commencement programme of infrastructure and capacity building”.

It goes on to state ministers should commit to spending “between £35 and £38 million per year from November 2028” delivering these new legal duties.

Scottish Government statistics, published in September, showed that 53,842 people across Scotland were assessed as being homeless in 2025-26.

The same data also showed a record 19,004 households were in temporary accommodation on March 31 2026 – with this including 10,715 children.

Maeve McGoldrick, head of policy and communications at Crisis Scotland, said: ”Scotland has genuinely ground-breaking new laws to prevent homelessness, and the idea at its heart came from people who have been homeless themselves: ask us what we need, then act on it.

“This new research shows for the first time what it will take to get implementation right, as we know legislation is only ever as good as it is delivered.”

She insisted: “This is spend-to-save in action and an investment that the Scottish Government must prioritise in its upcoming Budget.

“With two years before national commencement, we urgently need plans and funding in place to get the systems and workforce ready for successful delivery.

“We also need to see meaningful investment from across government portfolios so that public services are equipped to be successful in their delivery.

“The new laws mean preventing homelessness will become a cross-government responsibility and the benefits will be felt across health, justice and local councils.

“Our new report sets out what we need to do now, so that when the duties come into force in two years’ time, people get help long before they reach crisis point.”

Her comments came as the Scottish Government confirmed projects helping to prevent homelessness across Scotland will continue until the end of this financial year, after being allocated £945,000 of funding.

These Homelessness Prevention Pilots will help test approaches to early intervention and prevention, examining the “ask and act” measures set out in the legislation.

The extra money is on top of the £4 million announced for the pilots in August last year.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Preventing homelessness before it happens is one of the most important steps we can take to improve people’s lives.

“The work being carried out through these pilots is helping us understand how services can work together to identify risk earlier, intervene sooner and provide the support people need to stay in their homes and that is why I am pleased to confirm funding to extend them until March.”

She added that the Scottish Government was investing more than £213 million this year – with this cash partly coming via the local government settlement – on “homelessness measures aimed at delivering better outcomes for individuals, families and communities across Scotland”.