Teens facing homelessness slowly rising

The number of teenagers and young adults facing homelessness is steadily rising in the UK.

After the pandemic, many households are facing a cost-of-living crisis and are at a real risk of becoming homeless.

A demographic particularly affected by homelessness is 16 to 25-year-olds. In Bromsgrove, there is a non-profit organisation called The Basement Project that aims to work with individuals facing or dealing with homelessness in Birmingham and its surrounding areas.

Jerry Robinson, the director of The Basement Project, said, “Homelessness is not all around the public perception of street homelessness, sofa surfers, families moving back to parents, et cetera.”

Credit: Imogen Baller, the Basement Project, Hanover Street

Sofa-surfing, otherwise known as hidden homelessness, is becoming a greater problem. This form of homelessness makes it harder to record accurately just how many young people are homelessness. Sofa-surfing also exposes the individual, putting them in a dangerous position, vulnerable to abuse.

Robinson said, “Relationships and the family unit are a common factor with young people escaping challenging or abusive environments.

“We do get some clients with substance misuse issues, but these are a lower percentage than you may expect.”

Credit: Imogen Baller, outside New Street Station, looking onto Lower Temple Street

According to Shelter, there are currently around 271,000 homeless people in the UK, with 123,000 of these being children.

The UK government’s recent legislation has harmed families facing homelessness as the Universal Credit’s two child limit and the Benefit Cap caused further child poverty as those families with children born after April 2017 were capped after two-children for their benefits.

Robinson, manager of The Basement Project said, “I would say that it is hard to obtain funding for preventative work because you can't evidence that in the same way as crisis management, but you would prefer to work upstream and fix issues at an earlier point.

“Charities struggle to secure funding for core costs which means they have to use resources, meaning time and money, to chase funding.”