As shown in the Guardian, January 2024

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of homeless young people in the UK since Christmas, charities have warned.

The New Horizon Youth Centre in London said a record number of young people had asked it for help in the first week of January, while the charity Akt, which supports homeless LGBTQ+ young people, said it had seen more referrals than it would expect in a month. Roundabout in Sheffield and YMCA Trinity, which operates in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, also reported increases.

A coalition of 120 charities has come together under the banner #PlanForThe136k – which refers to an estimate that there were 136,000 homeless young people in 2023 – to call on the government to create a national strategy to end youth homelessness. They are asking people to support a parliamentary petition to force a response from ministers.

Research by the charity Centrepoint estimated that 135,800 young people approached their council as homeless in 2022-23 and Shelter said last month it believed an extra 40,000 people of all ages would be homeless at Christmas. But there is alarm at the rise in numbers since then.

“We can see this is spiralling rapidly,” said Phil Kerry, chief executive of the New Horizon centre, which he said was the only open-access space in London for homeless people under 25. By the start of last week, the centre had already seen 142 people, compared with the weekly average of 63.

“When we reopened on 4 January we had 76 young people queueing up for help,” Kerry said. “When I arrived that morning, there was a young person in a soaking wet sleeping bag on the doorstep waiting. We’ve never seen levels of need this high, and we’ve never had fewer options available.”

Young people who become homeless often have less resources, he added, because the minimum wage is lower for those under 23, and those under 25 receive lower benefit payments.

Hayley Speed at Akt said the ­charity had seen demand for its specialist youth LBGTQ+ homeless services “skyrocket”.

“Our London referrals have received more requests in the first week of January than we would usually expect over the whole month,” she said. “It’s double our weekly average.”

In South Yorkshire, Roundabout’s Sheffield centre was “the busiest it’s ever been”, according to chief executive Ben Keegan.

“We’ve taken over former student accommodation just to help meet the ever-growing demand from young people in desperate housing need in our region,” Keegan said. The rise comes on top of a 21% increase in the number of homeless young people last year, rising to 1,876.

YMCA Trinity works with young people in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Jon Martin, its chief executive, said: “Across our area we’re seeing increasing demand for our youth housing services. Some of this is young people leaving the care system or, for others, finding themselves homeless due to family breakup or challenging circumstances where they live. Some of it is driven by low housing supply, especially at the entry level – high rents and high living costs.

“All are coming to us with increasingly complex needs, including issues with mental health, adverse childhood experiences and trauma.”

Kate Polson, chief executive of the Scottish youth homelessness charity Rock Trust, said: “Young people are doubly disadvantaged as they are more likely to be in insecure, low paid work and are less likely to have savings and references and we need to address this if we are to end youth homelessness.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Everyone deserves a safe and decent place to call home. Since 2010, we have delivered over 684,800 new affordable homes. We’re also spending £1bn to tackle homelessness.”