Local charity calls for strategy to end youth homelessness

Youth Concern Aylesbury is joining a collective of the UK’s biggest youth and youth homelessness charities raise the alarm on the escalating crisis in the UK and advocate for the solutions they claim are proven to solve youth homelessness for good.

According to Centrepoint’s Databank 129,000 young people approached their council for help to avoid becoming homeless in 2021-22.That’s 353 young people a day. A new young person every 4  minutes. Two out of five young people approaching their council are not offered support. The figurein Aylesbury Vale, according to Youth Concern, is 22% higher than the national average.

The charity have shared that many young people who have used the services of frontline charities have not approached their council for support, and there are thousands more across the UK who are among the hidden homeless, sofa surfing between friends or even risking a night on the streets. With young people already disproportionately affected by both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, the consequences of ignoring the escalating youth homelessness crisis will be severe.

Youth Concern are meeting with Aylesbury MP Rob Butler at their Next Step Project in central Aylesbury, home to previously homeless young people, today (15/6) to highlight their concerns and ask for his help in promoting the issue at government level.

Here Youth Concern CEO Hannah Asquith tells Bucks Radio what needs to be done, and more about 'Maia', a young person who slept in cars and behind buildings before benefitting from the charity's work:

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Young people are often 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, and are punished by lowered benefits if they increase their work hours despite receiving lower income overall.

There isn't enough suitable, affordable and youth appropriate housing. And with no ready guarantor to secure rental housing if family relationships have broken down, young people can be left with no options, and at serious risk of exploitation. This picture is only exacerbated for young people of minoritised communities due to existing systemic inequities.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

The new collective of 100 homelessness and youth organisations have united to call on those in power and seeking to be in power to put young people first, and to deliver a strategy to end youth homelessness as a manifesto commitment ahead of the next general election.

Hannah Asquith, CEO of Youth Concern shared: “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.”

‘Maia’ benefitted from Youth Concern’s support when she became homeless at 19: ‘I spent my first homeless night in a car. It was so cold. I spent another night behind an abandoned building. And I slept on friends’ sofas… until they got tired of me being there. Youth Concern were amazing. Through them I stayed with a really nice lady. Now I have a job, and somewhere good to live. My mental health is better and I’m managing it. I owe so much to this amazing charity..’