SCOTTISH Office permission for 29 local authorities to borrow a total

of #4m to combat homelessness was welcomed by Shelter (Scotland) today

and the Scottish Council for Single Homeless.

But Shelter, the Scottish campaign for the homeless, expressed

disappointment that some of the smaller rural and remote authorities had

been unsuccessful in their bids to be included in the allocation.

It hoped that the Scottish Office would look more favourably at the

proposals by these authorities to give permission to borrow a further

#7m in the next financial year.

The Scottish Office had announced that 29 local authorities would

share the #4m, Shelter said, but this was #2.5m short of the total

sought by these authorities in bids submitted. Nevertheless, it

considered the allocation to have been targeted efficiently, and found

that 12 of the authorities had secured their original bid.

The #4m was made available to support projects which would prevent

homelessness among young single people.

Mr Martyn Evans, its director in Scotland, said Shelter welcomed the

extra resources to help to alleviate the problem of youth homelessness

in Scotland, but it urged the Scottish Office to consider a regular

grant package aimed not only at young people but also families and

childless couples.

Mr Laurie Naumann, director of SCSH, said that the additional

allocation marked an important step in the development of Government

policy towards homeless people.

''They are aimed at those without an automatic priority for housing,

and recognise that without additional money the needs of many young

people cannot be met by local housing authorities,'' he said.

''However, the allocations should not be one-off and should be made

part of the total allocation to local authorities each year.''