Scotland’s Housing Crisis Is Being Weaponised - Our Casework Tells a Different Story

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Last month, Positive Action in Housing's Housing & Homelessness casework team took up 126 housing cases. This is not out of the ordinary. That figure exposes, in forensic detail, what Scotland’s housing emergency looks like when experienced by people at the sharpest edge of the system - people from refugee, asylum seeking and immigrant backgrounds.

91% (115 cases) were people already in formal humanitarian or protection routes. 57% (72 cases) were recognised refugees with leave to remain. 34% (43 cases) were people seeking asylum, housed separately under Home Office contracts and legally excluded from mainstream social housing. This dismantles the claim, increasingly repeated by anti immigrant groups, that "illegals are jumping the housing queue” for social housing. Actually, they are not in the queue at all.

76% (96 cases) of families who contacted us were experiencing homelessness, imminent homelessness, or accommodation so unsuitable it was actively harming their health. 43% (54 cases) were people trapped in insitutionalised hotels or hostels, often long-term, unable to cook, living with pests, noise, overcrowding or fear. 21% (26 cases) faced immediate eviction, including from temporary council accommodation. 12% (16 cases) were already street homeless or sofa-surfing. Alongside this, 28% (35 cases) involved serious housing conditions such as damp, mould, flooding, infestation or broken heating, frequently affecting children and disabled adults. 

Survival poverty is pervasive. 63% (79 cases) explicitly asked for food or clothes vouchers. 34% (45 cases) were people seeking asylum surviving on less than £10 per week. 29% (37 cases) involved energy debt or council tax arrears.

Health and trauma are central to this picture. 56% (71 cases) disclosed mental health conditions, most commonly depression and anxiety. 36% (45 cases) reported chronic physical illness or disability. 31% (39 cases) identified as survivors of torture, trafficking or severe domestic abuse. Unsuitable housing is directly worsening health: damp aggravating asthma, hotel living re-triggering trauma, overcrowding pushing families beyond endurance. 

17% of households (21 cases) reported racial abuse, harassment or feeling unsafe where they were living. Several people described changing their behaviour, isolating themselves indoors, or moving location entirely to avoid harm. We are also seeing an increasing number of people leaving England for Scotland, not only because of the housing crisis there, but because of racism and the perception that Scotland is more welcoming. That belief may be fragile, but it is telling that people still cling to it.

Against this reality, the current political narrative being pushed by the likes of Reform UK  ("illegals jumping the housing queue")  is nothing more than a political distraction, designed to blame people of colour using racially coded language  to foment prejudice and racism. 

You may remember that two months ago Nigel Farage targeted children whose first language was not English, implying that bilingual children in Glasgow were a problem. He was not referring to Glasgow’s 1,400 Gaelic-speaking schoolchildren from predominantly white Scots households. He was talking about children of colour. If those children were French or German speakers, you can bet there would be no issue.

Those who play the politics of division have no answers for ordinary working people. They peddle hate and set neighbour against neighbour. They offer zero solutions. Introducing so-called “Scots first” rules would undermine equalities law, stigmatise communities and pit people against each other while letting governments avoid responsibility for the real failure: housing supply.

Asylum seekers and people without status are categorically not on mainstream social housing lists. they are "reserved" to Westminster. They are housed separately under Home Office asylum contracts with Mears Group, who profit by the millions. How different it would be if the UK government had invested the billions it has paid asylum contractors since 2001 in the building of housing for everyone, including refugees. The claim that people seeking asylum are being prioritised is simply false. It is a vote-collecting tactic, nothing more. The same old playbook, recycled.

Scotland’s housing emergency is the result of decades of under-building, rising rents, poverty and the loss of social housing stock. Blaming immigrants does not create a single additional home. It misleads the public and lowers the level of debate. Racism, blame and division are not leadership. Scotland deserves better. The answer is a clear, costed social housebuilding programme, led by the Scottish Government and targeted at those in greatest housing need. If we want shorter waiting lists and stable communities, the solution is homes — not hate.

Robina Qureshi

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