Despite widespread calls from Centrepoint and others in the sector to make the Universal Credit uplift permanent, the Government chose to withdraw the extra money in 2021, impacting millions of vulnerable households across the country.
Over the last decade, recorded levels of destitution and food insecurity have risen sharply across the UK. This research shows that some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in our society are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity.
Our report shows that when homeless young people are ready to move on and live independently, they’re being held back by the housing crisis. We are calling on the government to build more safe and affordable housing to break the cycle of homelessness and provide young people with safety and stability.
This scoping review sets out the case for why ending youth homelessness needs to be a public and political priority. It pulls together key information on the scale, causes and impacts of youth homelessness on young people themselves and wider society.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. Since the UK went into its first lockdown in March 2020, the Government has channelled funding of over £700 million to help prevent homelessness and provide emergency accommodation for rough sleepers as part of the Everyone In scheme.
Across Centrepoint’s services, almost one in five young people were reported as being ready to move on but unable to do so, with a third of these having been ready to move on for longer than six months. This report seeks to identify the key barriers faced by young people looking to move on, in order to understand what needs to be done to help homeless young people ready to take the next step and move into stable longer term accommodation.
Young people experiencing homelessness, who are among society’s most vulnerable and isolated groups, face significant risks from criminal exploitation and serious youth violence. There is overlap between many of the factors understood to drive both youth violence and youth homelessness, such as poverty and exclusion, family breakdown, experiences leaving care and other state institutions, and difficulties with mental health and trauma. Homelessness can also increase young people’s exposure to violence and exploitation, whether in hostels, sofa surfing and in insecure accommodation, or sleeping rough.
For the past five decades Centrepoint has supported homeless young people to turn their lives around. In 2019, no young person should find themselves homeless yet we are supporting more young people than ever through our accommodation services and national Helpline.
This research is the first longitudinal evaluation of the Youth Obligation to be published. It reflects the experiences of disadvantaged young people; those with the most complex needs who are furthest from the job market. The Youth Obligation is not working effectively for this group.
The Centrepoint Youth Homelessness Databank significantly increases the information that is publicly accessible on youth homelessness by collecting council level data to build a more informed national understanding of the problem. This report presents an analysis of data collected by local authorities in 2018/19, which was the first year of the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA).
