Young & Homeless in the UK

Posted : 22/10/2015 | By Alice Mahalia

For both landlords and letting agents, its a well known fact that housing can be a very complicated matter. With increasing legislation and talk of a major housing crisis in the UK, landlords have a growing number of responsibilities to protect themselves and their tenants. We discuss these issues at PIMS everyday and advise landlords through their problems, but there are some sad realities that are not often discussed.

In this article, in light of BBC's Children in Need Appeal, we want to reflect on the thousands of young people in the UK who are now homeless and what we as individuals and landlords can do to make difference.

What is Homelessness?
Even if you have a roof over your head, you can still be homeless – you may also be homeless if you live in unsuitable housing or don’t have rights to stay where you are.

You may be considered to be homeless if are:-
1. living somewhere where you have no legal right to stay, such as a squat
2. living somewhere that you can't afford to pay for without depriving yourself of basic essentials
3. forced to live apart from your family or someone you would normally live with because your accommodation isn't suitable

You might be entitled to help as a homeless person if you are:-
1. temporarily staying with friends or family
2. staying in a hostel or nightshelter
3. living in very overcrowded conditions
4. at risk of violence or abuse in your home
5. living in poor conditions that affect your health

Causes of Homelessness
You could become homeless for many different reasons. These could include:-
1. being evicted because of rent arrears caused by money problems
2. the breakdown of your relationship with your partner, parents or family
3. having to leave because of domestic violence or abuse
4. illegal eviction or harassment by a landlord
5. a disaster such as a fire or flooding

Young People and Homelessness
Homelessness among young people has been a major social problem over the last two decades. There are no accurate national statistics to measure the extent of youth homelessness as there is no requirement on any statutory agency to identify the scale of the problem. Also, young homeless people, like other homeless groups, tend to be mobile and not always visible to services. This further exacerbates existing problems with quantifying the number of homeless people.

Many of the causes of homelessness affect young people across the spectrum. However, there are some young people who are more at risk of becoming homeless:

• care leavers
• runaways
• young offenders
• black and minority ethnic (BME) groups
• asylum seekers
• refugees
• young people from rural areas.

An additional 1.6 million children in Britain live in housing that is overcrowded, temporary or run-down. Some live in housing that’s making them ill. Many are missing out on a decent education. Others suffer chronic insecurity, shuffled from place to place in ‘temporary accommodation’.

Bad housing has a massive impact on children’s lives, affecting everything from their health and educational achievement, to their emotional well-being and overall life chances:
• Health: children living in cramped accommodation experience disturbed sleep, poor diet, higher rates of accidents and infectious disease
• Education: children from homeless households are more likely to suffer from bullying, unhappiness and stigmatisation
• Emotional well-being: about half of the families taking part in one study conducted by Shelter said their children were frightened, insecure, or worried about the future as a result of their homelessness
• Life chances: The health and educational impact of poor housing may affect children’s future job prospects and financial well-being.

How Can Landlord’s Help
There are a number of practical ways in which a Landlord can help young homeless people:-
1. Report any concerns you have relating to your tenants wellbeing to relevant authorities
2. Don’t ‘evict’ a tenant as soon as they have problems with their rent or if they start claiming housing benefit – Just because they are struggling one month this does not mean that it will continue; talk to them and try to ascertain the problems
3. Sign up to local schemes which place homeless people in secured accommodation – Many of these will guarantee your rent even though you are housing a formally homeless person
4. Consider providing more ‘affordable housing’ to young people or offer properties to young sharers
5. Help raise money for a local homeless charity – This will provide the landlord with publicity at the same time as helping those in need



Sources
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/homelessness/homelessness_-_an_introduction/what_is_homelessness
http://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/policy_library_folder/young_people_and_homelessness_factsheet
http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/supporting_families_and_children
http://www.doorway.org.uk/ourwork/work-landlords.php
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/may/25/property.landlords
http://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/our-research/young-and-homeless-research