Why Shelter Cymru is campaigning to End Youth Evictions.
Last year more than 3,000 young people in Wales became homeless and had to use council homelessness services. Eviction from social and supported housing was a significant contributor to this figure, although nobody knows exactly how significant because nobody monitors youth evictions.
As the Welsh social housing sector increasingly aligns behind an ambition to achieve zero evictions into homelessness, Shelter Cymru has been conducting research to understand the perspectives of people particularly hard-hit by the negative impacts of eviction: young people.
The study, which will be published this winter, includes first-hand accounts from young people who have had to sleep rough after eviction from social and supported accommodation.
The report will form the basis for a new campaign, ‘End Youth Evictions’, aiming to gather commitments from providers of social and supported housing that they support the ending of eviction into homelessness for everyone aged under 25.
In practice, this means:
- Building more social homes that young people can afford, and ensuring young people don’t face barriers to social housing
- Redesigning supported housing, increasing the range of accommodation for young people so that they have choice and can pick the right home for them
- Adopting psychologically informed ways of working that are sympathetic to young people’s needs
- Providing proper budgeting support so that young people don’t fall into serious rent arrears
- Ensuring that when a young person needs to move, this happens in a managed way with agencies working in partnership to help the young person into the right home for them.
Last year Shelter Cymru gave specialist housing advice and advocacy to young people across Wales who were facing or experiencing homelessness. Some of these young people were sleeping rough or in tents due to a lack of suitable accommodation, a lack of available support, and a lack of legal rights.
John Puzey, director of Shelter Cymru, said: ‘We know it’s possible to achieve zero evictions into homelessness because there are providers in Wales who are already doing this. However, there’s far too much inconsistency and for young people in particular, this inconsistency has consequences that are really serious. Some young people told us they’d been made homeless for reasons that could only be described as trivial. We heard how horrendously frightening it was for young people to have to sleep rough after such evictions. This simply is not good enough. Our campaign is an urgent first step towards achieving zero evictions into homelessness for everyone living in social housing.’
The report will include detailed recommendations and practical examples of services achieving zero youth evictions.
Shelter Cymru is inviting organisations to pledge support to the campaign. To learn more, visit the campaign website at www.sheltercymru.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/end-youth-evictions.