CLAIRE Baker has met with representatives from Shelter Scotland, to discuss the organisation's campaign to end homelessness.

The MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife is highly concerned about statistics revealing that every 19 minutes a family in Scotland is made homeless and the Kelty woman is equally worried about how things are developing in the Kingdom.

The Shelter Scotland Campaign was launched in September 2016 to highlight that more than 5,000 people were sleeping rough.

Shelter Scotland described the homelessness crisis engulfing Scotland, highlighting that in Scotland in 2016/17 a household became homeless every 19 minutes.

Additionally, it has been highlighted that 10,873 households were in temporary accommodation, with 6,041 dependent children in temporary accommodation.

In Fife, there were 2,441 homeless applications in 2016/17. Since then, there has been increases amongst those sleeping rough 3 months prior to making an assessment, which is now at 60%.

Claire Baker and the Shelter Scotland representatives discussed the homelessness crisis in Scotland, and the need to resolve this.

Claire Baker said: “Scotland is struggling to meet commitments to end homelessness, and these figures from Shelter show that it is getting worse.

“The need for a solution is becoming increasingly evident, especially as we expect further pressures with ill thought out changes to the benefits system.

“Fife Council continue to have some of Scotland’s most ambitious housebuilding targets, which they have been delivering on, and Fife has seen a decrease in repeat homelessness. It is worrying though, that there has been an increase in rough sleeping and we must focus resources on addressing this, particularly as we enter the winter months.

“We need greater focus from the Scottish Government to tackle this crisis, which impacts on far too many people within our society, and I will be writing to the Housing Minister to raise Shelter’s Campaign.”