More than 22,000 young people could be homeless or at risk of being made homeless in England this Christmas, according to a study.
Centrepoint, the youth homeless charity, said its analysis laid bare for the first time the scale of the issue among young people over winter. The data has been collected after the passage of the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2017.
Under the terms of the act, councils must collect details of people presenting to them as homeless. The figures follow research by the housing charity Shelter that revealed that the cost of housing families in temporary accommodation had exceeded £1bn for the first time.
Centrepoint sent freedom of information requests to all 326 councils in England asking how many 16- to 25-year-olds had presented as homeless or were at risk of becoming homeless last winter. Of those, 248 responded.
From that data, and its research with local councils, Centrepoint has projected that about 22,250 young people will seek help for homelessness between November 2019 and January 2020, enough young people to fill the O2 Arena in London.
Separate research by the charity suggests that figure may even be an underestimate, with “hidden homelessness” continuing to be a significant issue. Almost three-quarters of young people affected by homelessness said they had sofa-surfed because they had nowhere else to stay, while nearly four in 10 had stayed in an abusive home with a parent or guardian because they had nowhere else to go, a survey found.
A third of the young people surveyed had spent the night in a park, more than a quarter had stayed in a tent, and one in 10 had spent the night on a night bus.
Almost three-quarters of young people made homeless said it had affected their mental health. The survey of more than 200 young people who had experienced homelessness also found that four in 10 said it had made it more difficult for them to access education.
Centrepoint supports more than 15,000 homeless young people a year. It is campaigning for changes to the government’s universal credit scheme, which heavily limits the amount of money given to young people to pay their rent.
“It’s meant to cover the cost of a room in a shared house, but it rarely does – and house shares are almost impossible to find in many parts of the country – leaving young people ready to move on trapped in a cycle of homelessness,” the charity said.
Seyi Obakin, Centrepoint’s chief executive, said: “With the problem of youth homelessness growing, we need to pull together and take urgent action to protect vulnerable young people and make sure every young person has a safe place to call home and the future they deserve.”