Currently people are spending an average of 199 days(April 2020 to March 2021)in temporary accommodation before being housed in somewhere permanent.Most recently updated in October 2020, Scotland is working to eradicate homelessness through the Ending Homelessness Together action plan. It is anticipated that with this, alongside a focus on prevention, and Local Authorities working with the third sector on plans known as Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans, that people will no longer be homeless for any length of time. In terms of figures, in 2020/21, there were 42,149 people in homeless households – 30,345 adults and 11,804 children in Scotland. This was a drop of 9% from the previous year, though it is unclear if this was partly due to statistics being collected differently during the start of the pandemic. North America
Canada
United States
After Franklin D. Roosevelt took over the presidency from Herbert Hoover in 1933, he oversaw passage of the New Deal, which greatly expanded social welfare, including providing funds to build public housing. This marked the end of the Great Depression. However, the number of homeless people grew in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan decimated the public housing budget in the 1980s, including the federally funded affordable housing production put in place by the New Deal. By the mid-1980s, there was a dramatic increase in family homelessness.
Difficulties can compound exponentially. A study found that in the city of Hong Kong over half of the homeless people in the city (56%) had some degree of mental illness. Only 13% of the 56% were receiving treatment for their condition leaving a huge portion of homeless untreated for their mental illness.The issue of anti-homeless architecture came to light in 2014, after a photo displayed hostile features (spikes on the floor) in London, and took social media by storm. The photo of an anti-homeless structure was a classic example of hostile architecture, in an attempt to discourage people from attempting to access or use public space in irregular ways. However, although this has only recently came to light, hostile architecture has been around for a long time in many places. : 68  An example of this is a low overpass that was put in place between New York City and Long Island. Robert Moses, an urban planner, designed it this way in an attempt to prevent public buses from being able to pass through it. Healthcare
Health care for homeless people is a major public health challenge. When compared to the general population, people who are homeless experience higher rates of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Chronic disease severity, respiratory conditions, rates of mental health illnesses and substance use are all often greater in homeless populations than the general population. Homelessness is also associated with a high risk of suicide attempts.