Scotland’s national records office is to publish official statistics on the number of people who have died while homeless for the first time next month.
This February’s publication of statistics for both 2017 and 2018 comes after The Ferret – working in partnership with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism – investigated and found that almost two people every week died while homeless. It is anticipated that official figures will be higher.
Homeless deaths recorded by The Ferret included some on the city streets. However many were housed in temporary accommodation such as hostels, homeless B&Bs or were sofa surfing when they died. One man died in Glasgow’s Winter Night Shelter in January 2018. Drug overdoses were implicated in many of the deaths.
