THOUSANDS of homeless people in Glasgow may be helped out of poverty with the latest Scottish Government proposals.

Around 2000 people are accommodated by Glasgow City Council in temporary houses and hostels every day, while the city is also home to dozens of rough sleepers.

Nicola Sturgeon yesterday announced her plan for government, setting out 16 new bills which she hopes will help to make Scotland greener, more fair, safer and healthier as well as having better public services.

Part of the proposals announced by the First Minister included providing a £10m a year fund for the next five years to help reduce and eradicate homelessness across the country.

According to the plans, the cash will be used for an "anti-homelessness initiative" with an extra £20m investment in alcohol and drug services, which affect many homeless people across the city.

A homeless and rough sleeping action group will also be set up if the plans are approved, which will help to find out what is needed to end street sleeping and "transform the use of temporary accommodation".

Also included in the First Minster's address was a commitment to building 50,000 affordable homes.

Despite this being welcomed by Labour chief Alex Rowley, he said more action is needed to tackle the country's "housing crisis".

He said:"Shelter says Scotland has a ‘Housing Crisis’ and I agree. So too do the tens of thousands on council house waiting lists, the homeless and the children who leave school each day with no home to call their own.

"I have welcomed the government’s commitment to build 50,000 affordable homes, but I say again we need a National House Build Strategy to ensure it happens.

"We cannot allow this housing crisis to continue."

Glasgow Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said the country is facing "a housing shortage on the scale not seen since the second world war" while Labour MP Anas Sarwar described the annoucements as "a day of shame" for Nicola Sturgeon.

However, a Glasgow homelessness organisation has welcomed the proposals and said that the current situation in the country is "a scandal".

Grant Campbell, chief executive of the Glasgow City Mission,said:" “We agree that Scotland needs to fundamentally change its approach to temporary accommodation, and that it is a scandal that people have remained in temporary accommodation for 2 years or more, living with uncertainty and unable to establish themselves in a community, in turn creating a more vulnerable scenario far less likely to succeed.

“We believe ending the bottle neck that is temporary accommodation in Scotland requires two things: to make better and more efficient use of current housing stock and find more effective solutions that don’t set people up to fail, and also being more ambitious in the government’s affordable house building programme.

“We respond warmly to including people with lived experience of homelessness to help design responses that are best for those we aim to support.

“We applaud plans to reduce the length of time pregnant women or children spend in unsuitable accommodation”.