Charity reveals 1,000 families a year evicted in Scotland

The charity estimates that 2,000 children face homelessness each year following an eviction, mostly after their parents fall into rent arrears.

The report, Eviction of Children and Families: The Impact and the Alternatives, calls for greater leniency from social landlords when tenants fall into arrears and to consider eviction only as a last resort.

Report author Jesse Crawford, children’s service policy and practice co-ordinator at Shelter Scotland, said: "We have also highlighted good practice in the report that we want all landlords to follow. Eviction is bad for families and bad for landlords as well in terms of getting any rent paid."

Alternatives include offering crisis intervention support to address debt problems before they get out of hand.

Graeme Brown, Shelter Scotland director, added: "One family we worked with were evicted for rent arrears following a mix-up with housing benefit. This led to the family being homeless for three years and moving four times to different types of temporary accommodation, which was very unsettling and upsetting, particularly for the children."

The charity is also calling on social landlords, advice bodies and the Scottish Government to organise an evictions summit to ensure that eviction is a last resort.