Preventing Youth Homelessness

email to a friend | user comments

Published: 12 March 2007

Preventing Youth Homelessness

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper has voiced concerns at the persistent problem of young people who are forced to leave the family home and end up staying with a succession of friends or relatives and has announced a new package of measures to help reduce and prevent youth homelessness.

More than a third of new cases of homelessness last year were young people aged under 25. Just under a quarter of people who became homeless over that period were forced to leave their last home because parents were no longer willing to accommodate them.

Yvette Cooper commented that; ‘We have tackled the worst of forms of homelessness, reducing rough sleeping and ending the scandal of families with children living in bed and breakfast accommodation.

But the changing face of homelessness means we need to urgently address the new challenge of preventing youth homelessness’.

In a major speech to Centrepoint, Yvette Cooper said;

"Young people being forced to leave the family home has become one of the biggest causes of homelessness.

As a result, we are seeing a persistent problem of young people moving from one place to the next without ever having a proper home, which can impact severely on their life chances and put them out of reach of support services.

Children and young people can face the most severe consequences if they experience homelessness, which can haunt them for the rest of their lives.

That is why we made it a priority to help families with children out of bed and breakfast accommodation. But is also why we need to do more to help young people who find themselves homeless alone.

This new partnership with the voluntary sector will help young people move away from the damaging cycle of homelessness through schemes like supported lodgings, giving them the stability and support they need to move back to a settled home."

The package of announcements include;

· A new partnership with YMCA England and Centrepoint to deliver a National Youth Homelessness scheme, including developing a network of supported lodgings schemes across England and ensuring young people have access to them.

This will provide short-term respite support to young people, giving them a place to stay whilst they work through problems and increase the chances they can return to the family home

· Setting up a committee of formerly homeless young people, who will advise Ministers directly on policy by sharing their experience and concerns.

The causes of homelessness are complex and Ministers want both national Government and local Government to have a greater understanding of what factors it needs to put more emphasis on to prevent young people becoming homeless in the first place.

· Establishing a new Centre of Excellence in every region where those councils that have already made good progress in tackling youth homelessness will share expertise with neighbouring councils and agencies.

This will aim to step up prevention by making mediation services between guardians and young people more available as well as increasing expertise available through-out the country.

A new National Homelessness Advice Service is also being launched in partnership with Shelter and the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), which will hopefully give everyone across the country the opportunity to access homelessness advice through trained advisers at CABs, to prevent their family from becoming homeless.

These measures build on those announced by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly last November, including a new target to end the use of bed and breakfast accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds by 2010.

The minister also launched 'Foundations for Life', a new project between Centrepoint and LandAid, which is a new venture that will see the transformation of hostels into learning centres that will provide young homeless people with opportunities for work and training opportunities.

Yvette Cooper also announced the allocation of £16 million to voluntary organisations to help prevent all forms of homelessness. This money is part of the £74m Homelessness Grant for 2007/08 to prevent and tackle homelessness.

Further information

Tackling Youth Homelessness - Policy Briefing 18

Homelessness statistics

Sustainable Communities: settled homes; changing lives

DCLG – Tackling Homelessness

Sustainable Communities: Homes for All,

Centrepoint

YMCA England

National Homelessness Advice Service

Shelter

Citizens Advice Bureau

'Foundations for Life'