How did we get here? And what needs to change?

If young people aren’t designed into housing and homelessness systems, they get directly excluded. We’re asking the government to add a #YouthHomelessChapter to their strategy to end homelessness to make sure young people don’t get left out. We’ve also collaborated on a series of suggestions on what could sit within that strategy.

Why do we have a youth homelessness crisis in the UK?

Young people are not adequately supported during an already challenging transition to adulthood. They may be pushed into homelessness due to violence, abuse and trauma at home or in the care or criminal justice system. Required to be socially and financially independent for the first time, they face lower pay and minimum wage jobs in the labour markets, increasing their risk of poverty. With young people disproportionately affected by both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, action is required now to avoid long term societal repercussion.

In delivering our work to support young people experiencing homelessness, we find they face the same unique barriers:

  • Young people are more likely to be ‘hidden homeless’, sleeping on a friend’s sofa or alternating between different short-term accommodations.

  • The current system makes it really difficult for young people to prove they are homeless. This leads to cruel processes like having to approach their former caregiver for written confirmation that they are no longer welcome in their home.

  • In 2023-24, Centrepoint found that 33% weren’t assessed when they presented and only 51% were offered any kind of support by their council. Many are told to go home even though this may not be a safe option.

  • Over 50% of young people accessing New Horizon Youth Centre in London do not approach their local authority, demonstrating a lack of knowledge of their rights.

  • Young people get lower wages, less benefits and less entitlements in the support they’re offered. Young people receive reduced welfare benefit entitlements and are often punished by lowered benefits if they increase work hours despite lower income overall. Yet young people have to pay the same bills as the rest of the population, are experiencing the cost of living crisis like the rest of us and often have the lowest savings and support to fall back on when they need it. Sounds unfair, doesn’t it?

  • Many young people have no ready guarantor to secure rental housing if family relationships have broken down.

  • Knowing that poverty plays a part in homelessness, it is important to stress that data consistently lays bare the difficult position that Black families are in – with a social Metrics Commission’s report finding 46% of Black households in the UK were in poverty, compared with just under one in five white families. Additionally, research shows that LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness with akt reporting that 24% of young people experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTQ+.

  • Family breakdown, evictions and being priced out are the main drivers for youth homelessness, which in turn can increase vulnerability to exploitation. Young people are often placed in mixed accommodation with older people, which is inappropriate and often scary. Young people experiencing homelessness are very likely to be exposed to harmful behaviours or harassment and exploitation.

What’s the knock-on impact?

Centrepoint reports only 51% of those young people who presented as homeless or at risk at their local authority in 2023-24 were offered any kind of support, meaning their homelessness was either ‘prevented’ or ‘relieved’. The negative impact on the health, education and employment prospects of young people without a home cannot be denied.

Further, data from a questionnaire carried out by DLUHC in 2020 on people that sleep rough found that 54% of people reported experiencing homelessness for the first time when under the age of 25; and 48% experienced rough sleeping for the first time before this age.

We need effective, cross-cutting interventions for young people at risk of homelessness if we are to prevent entrenchment. Not to mention the opportunity cost of failing to harness the talents of a generation.

What can we do to end this?

Young people’s experiences of homelessness are different from other age groups, so solutions need to be different, and they need to be informed by young people’s lived experience. Young people have been systemically overlooked in local and national homelessness and housing strategies, which reduces effective prevention opportunities and puts barriers in place for solutions.

Which is why it is imperative for government to create a #YouthHomelessChapter in their cross-departmental strategy to end homelessness, informed by young people’s lived experience.

This period of transition in every young person’s life is the perfect place to show an active, intersectional intervention and a commitment to levelling up for every future generation.

We see three strands to a cross-departmental solution:

  • We could intervene earlier and prevent the harm of homelessness in the first place by supporting young people to avoid crises in the first place through schools, families, and councils with:

    • An early identification programme within schools so those at risk are identified and supported. 

    • Work with young people and the youth homelessness sector to write and implement a youth-specific chapter in the Homelessness Code of Guidance.

  • Ensuring a supply of genuinely affordable and appropriate housing for young people. This must include better, safer options in place to catch and support young people facing homelessness to sustainably solve their housing issues. We recommend the government:

    • Incentivise the development of more social homes, with a particular focus on the housing needs of young people. 

    • Safeguard future of supported houses. 

    • Increase availability of Stepping Stone Accommodation

    • End the single accommodation age cap, which prevents young people under 35 years old from living alone.

    • Roll out and implement the Positive Pathways model nationally.

  • Fairer pay and resources so young people can build successful, independent lives and get a helping hand if they experience a setback.

    The government could do this by:

    • Reducing the housing benefit taper rate

    • Introduce a new Youth Independence Payment for young people living independently without family support. 

    • Extend having Jobcentre staff located on more supported accommodation sites part time. 

Download our policy checklist:

Homelessness isn’t a mystery or senseless, it’s a direct outcome of the systems that are meant to protect us all failing. When people don’t have the ability or support to advocate for themselves and push for help, they fall through the cracks.

The severity of the situation requires a bolder and youth-specific response.

Adopting a youth homelessness strategy, based in the evidence from the sector, would directly transform the lives and futures of young people in the UK, something any government would be proud of. Isn’t it time we give potential a home?

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