Hugh Russell reports on progress so far in the campaign to end youth homelessness in Wales.
End Youth Homelessness Cymru (EYHC) is an ambitious, coalition approach to tackling, and ultimately ending, one of Wales’ most challenging social issues – the breakdown of social support networks which results in young people becoming homeless.
We believe ending youth homelessness is everyone’s responsibility and we are aiming to create systemic and cultural change to ensure no young person has nowhere to call home. As the First Minister stated at EYHC’s launch: ‘Youth and Homelessness should not go together.’
The founding organisation, Llamau, plus partners GISDA, Dewis and SYSHP, have decades of experience between them in helping people overcome the personal challenges that resulted in their becoming homeless, but they had grown increasingly frustrated that they were not in a position to change the structural picture. The young people coming to them for support were facing increasingly complex challenges and all of the organisations involved realised that a systemic change was needed, to stem the flow of young people being failed by systems that often don’t work for the people they are meant to help.
EYHC was born when the coalition partners coalesced around a campaign, which, successfully, sought to end the practice of temporarily housing 16 and 17 year olds in bed and breakfast accommodation. The partners argued that this was an inappropriate way to treat vulnerable children, often leading to avoidable, negative outcomes for those placed there. For a comparable cost, properly-equipped supported accommodation could be provided, achieving much better outcomes for vulnerable young people.
The campaign’s petition attracted thousands of signatures and, boosted by the backing of actor and activist Michael Sheen – a keen supporter from the beginning and now patron of EYHC – was ultimately successful in persuading Welsh Government of the merits of amending guidance to protect these vulnerable young people.
Following the success of this initial campaign, Llamau and Michael Sheen worked to build a broader EYHC coalition and in June 2017 the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign was officially launched. Our aim, as the name suggests, is to bring about an end to youth homelessness in Wales by 2027. This is an ambitious target, but one that we are confident of achieving, with the right support.
That support has been overwhelmingly forthcoming and we are hugely grateful for the warmth, openness and willingness to engage shown across sectors and communities in Wales. Such willingness is a clear indication of an awareness across Wales of the urgent need to tackle youth homelessness at its roots and ensure that our young people and future generations do not need to suffer the danger and indignity of not having a place to call home.
The First Minister declared his backing, stating: ‘We believe we have a wonderful opportunity here in Wales to deliver real change. If we can put a man on the moon, we can surely end youth homelessness in Wales.’
The late Carl Sargeant was keenly supportive of the project and we are grateful for his help in getting EYHC off the ground. Rebecca Evans AM has since demonstrated that she is every bit as supportive, recognising that ending youth homelessness is a cross-portfolio enterprise that encompasses education, skills, social services, youth justice and health. We are working closely with her department, which is represented on the steering group.
Alongside the First Minister, the Future Generations Commissioner, Children’s Commissioner, leader of the WLGA and patron Michael Sheen have all joined a strategy group to support the work of the campaign, while a steering group, comprising a wealth of agencies, academics and social policy experts with a breadth of expertise, brings a further level of support to the coalition.
As for the work of the project team, in practice, our focal areas will involve promoting a dramatic shift in policy on primary preventative measures. With the right support we see no reason for any child who has demonstrated an early vulnerability to homelessness (enduring a family breakdown while at school, for example, or growing up in the care system) to become homeless. EYHC will work to ensure the introduction of an effective, evidence-backed and joined-up system to prevent that outcome.
Precedent for successfully tackling youth homelessness in this fashion exists – the influential Geelong Project in Australia, for instance, has taken a similar, primary-prevention focussed approach and achieved dramatic outcomes, with a 40 per cent reduction in young people asking for help with homelessness over a three-year period and a 20 per cent reduction in early disengagement from education over the same period. The EYHC team is in touch with those involved in this project, along with comparable projects in Canada and the USA, to ensure we learn from their experiences and share our own.
Prioritising work that tackles preventable youth homelessness is a key plank of EYHC accounting for much of our focus, but there will still remain the need for secondary and tertiary support, when a sudden crisis means that a young person is rendered homeless. EYHC will thus also campaign for the continued availability of securely funded, secondary support services, which can step in and seek to bring an effective end to young people’s homelessness.
These will range from work that we know is effective now, such as assertive outreach support, to prioritising services which young people with experience of homelessness tell us would have helped them to overcome their problems much more effectively. As an example of the latter, EYHC is seeking to ensure the provision of a 24-hour helpline, which experts-by-experience told us would have made a big difference for them. Consultation with young people who have been homeless showed that 76 per cent had no idea where to turn; we need to change this, and by providing a helpline available at all hours, we aim to do just that.
We also need to increase the awareness and understanding of what being ‘vulnerable to homelessness’ and being on the ‘cusp of homelessness’ is and means. Greater understanding and ownership across all sectors will lead to earlier intervention and huge savings, not just in monetary terns but saving young people further fear and trauma. Listening and acting on what young people tell us is a key principle of EYHC.
The challenges facing us are huge, not least improving recognition that primary prevention needs to be embedded through education, social services, mental health, youth justice and the third sector.
With around 7,000 young people per year approaching Welsh local authorities for help with homelessness, we know we have a mountain to climb, but by listening and acting on what those young people tell us, by working collaboratively with our partners and by pushing for institutional and social change to a preventative approach, we believe we can be successful. For the youth of today and tomorrow, we must be.
Hugh Russell is project manager of End Youth Homelessness Cymru