The number of Fife children being forced into temporary housing over the past year has increased by around 50%.
It means there were 515 youngsters across the region without a permanent home as of September 2022, an increase of 170 compared to the year before.
Across Scotland the number of homeless people hit record levels in a cost-of-living crisis.
Homeless charity Crisis said the thousands of youngsters all over Scotland who found themselves in temporary accommodation were being “robbed of a childhood”.
In Fife, there was also a 10% increase in overall homeless applications in the six months from last April to September compared to the same timescale a year earlier.
And the number of live cases being dealt with by the council increased by 400 in the 12 months leading up to September 2022, a rise of 24%.
Dundee saw a small increase in the number of homeless applications and children without permanent homes, but fewer families overall were staying in temporary accommodation.
Perth and Kinross saw an increase in households living in temporary accommodation compared to the year before from 37 to 51. However, overall applications for homelessness in the 12 months leading up to September were down slightly.
SNP housing chief Shona Robison admitted the new figures were “unacceptable and concerning”.
Ms Robison said: “The number of households, and particularly children, in temporary accommodation in some council areas is too high and we are firmly committed to reducing it.”
The data showed there had been a rise in Scots being left homeless because they were unable to pay their mortgage or had been evicted by their landlords.
Poorer families across Scotland are struggling to pay their energy bills, a rent freeze is in place to stop tenants from having to pay more to their landlords, and homeowners have been hit by rising interest rates.
Citizens Advice warned the latest homelessness figures were the “tip of the iceberg” as Scotland continues to suffer from a national housing crisis.
‘Horrifying impact’
Spokesperson Aoife Deery said: “This is the horrifying impact of the cost of living crisis and the housing emergency. There is a serious risk these figures are the tip of the iceberg.
“Across the Citizens Advice network we have seen that advice on actual homelessness has been growing as a proportion of housing advice for the past few months.
“Homelessness advice in December 2022 was up 34% from December 2021 as a proportion of all homelessness advice.
“We have also seen growing demand for online advice about rent increases, despite rent freeze legislation, and huge demand for online advice around mortgages.”
North East Fife Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said “immediate action” was required to bring down the number of homeless people across Scotland.
Conversation