Youth homelessness on the rise

Thursday, September 24th, 2020

Catholic charities in the UK are warning that that youth homelessness is on the rise.

Young people are leading a significant rise in the number of people sleeping rough and facing homelessness in various ways.

“If you care about homelessness, youth homelessness should be at the top of your agenda,” the chief executive of the south Westminster-based Cardinal Hume Centre says.

George O’Neill, says figures showed a significant increase in numbers of young people sleeping rough in London during the first three months of the pandemic lockdown.

Addressing this should be a priority, “not only because it is a tragic threat to the potential found in every young person, but because there is so much evidence to show that too often homelessness at a young age is repeated in later life.”

“We feel we are seeing more examples of relationship and family breakdown, leaving young people without a home. We need a coordinated and preventative response that takes account of young people’s needs and their routes into homelessness.”

Chief executive of Depaul UK Mike Thiedke says the economic downturn could see a further increase in homelessness.

“The number of people sleeping rough in London in quarter two of 2020 was 33 per cent higher than in the same period in 2019 and the outlook for the next six months is bleak.”

Thiedke says keeping the Nightstop emergency accommodation network running was challenging. A shortage of volunteer hosts, due to the pandemic, has led to a two-thirds drop in the number of beds for a night that Depaul could provide.

The St Vincent de Paul Society says it is also seeing a rise in poverty in the communities in which it works.

Chief executive officer Elizabeth Palmer says: “The financial, emotional and health fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has dragged many thousands of people below the poverty line.”

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