Housing charity Shelter has called Scotland's current level of homelessness a national badge of shame.

And the charity boss has claimed there has been an increase in the number of rough sleepers and beggars on the streets of Glasgow.

Figures issued by Shelter show 4504 city households reported as homeless last year and 2010 people are currently in temporary accommodation.

According to charity director Graeme Brown, 1391 children in Glasgow are currently in temporary accommodation and almost a quarter of the calls to its national helpline last year were from people in the city.

He visited George Square to launch a major new campaign to galvanise public and political support to fix what the charity describes as the human tragedy of homelessness in Scotland.

Homelessness: Far from Fixed is urging the public and politicians to sign up to its demands for local and national government to do more to solve the problem.

Mr Brown said: "Despite good progress in recent years, we are still failing too many people in our society, particularly the most vulnerable, with the most basic of human rights - the right to shelter and a home.

"It is shameful there are thousands of people sleeping rough on our streets and that there are thousands more hidden homeless people sofa surfing with friends.

"Evening Times readers cannot have failed to notice there is a real increase in rough sleepers in Glasgow and people out begging and that should shame us all.

"No-one is under any illusion about the challenges that face Glasgow but people have a right to certain services."

A city council spokesman said: "We fully accept there are pressures that currently exist within the homelessness system, particularly when accessing temporary accommodation but there has been a significant improvement in recent years.

"Homeless presentations in Glasgow have almost halved in the past 10 years and repeat homelessness applications are down by two thirds.

"We are now implementing a plan that is transforming how we deliver support across the city.

"We are working closely with the housing associations as well as the voluntary and charitable sectors to deliver suitable accommodation and services for those who require our assistance.

"We have a particular focus on delivering support in the city centre and our street team engages with the relatively small number of rough sleepers found in Glasgow to try and divert them to services.

"Our twin objectives are to prevent homelessness in the first place but also to ensure those affected by homelessness are back in permanent, mainstream housing as quickly as possible."