Why were young people barely mentioned in Labour's homelessness strategy?

It was exactly two years ago that the now prime minister and then leader of the opposition walked through the doors of New Horizon Youth Centre to help wrap Christmas presents.

This visit of his was memorable for several reasons, not simply to witness the growing entourage that amasses around those climbing the political ladder, but because it marked the official start of our full-blooded campaigning to get – what we assumed would be the incoming – government to adopt a strategy to end youth homelessness.

After months of preparation and coalition building with seven, then dozens, and eventually 150 youth and homelessness organisations we would solidify a coherent ask to focus on three simple things: prevention, housing and financial security. Shortly after Starmer’s visit we would go on to repeat the policy asks made to him to more than 50 MPs, taking our message onto TV news, a 15,000 strong petition, countless newspapers, outdoor advertising, podcasts and debates in parliament.

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The message we heard was if we get into power, make sure we are held to account. “Hold our feet to the fire,” we were told then and often again and so, as requested, then consider this your coal. 

In the midst of Labour’s new pledges lay nine simple words that gave everyone in my sector hope; a clear promise “to developing a new cross-government strategy to end homelessness”. But we knew it needed a dedicated chapter on young people; a chapter that outlined ring-fenced commitments and resources for this cohort’s prevention, housing and finances.

To understand why, we need to go right back to the genesis of the Housing Act in 1977, the first piece of legislation within the UK that set clear responsibilities for the state to support those who were vulnerable and homeless. It was this act that created ‘priority need’ but at the time they decided that young people should not be a priority despite their age, lack of networks and resources.

How can it be that those aged 18 to 24 can be paid less, receive 26% less universal credit and considerably less housing benefit and still be faced with the same rental costs? How can all the evidence point to most single adults’ homelessness beginning when they were young and yet it still be the topic that receives the least political attention?

So, the release of the long-awaited national homelessness strategy last week was a moment as overdue as it was anticipated. The contents quickly showed our asks had not been met. There was no Chapter 3 on Young People. We didn’t even get a section 3.4. Instead, we were left with subsection 3.4.4 and 562 words of pre-existing, if deliverable across departments, helpful actions and just 87 words of new commitments.

These include the creation of a toolkit to prevent homelessness and a commitment to include young people as a dedicated chapter in the Homelessness Code of Guidance – though how a cohort that represents 17% of all council homelessness presentations had thus far been omitted is a question for another day.

Don’t get me wrong, this is all good progress and the section in the homelessness guidance was always one of our asks and I am glad we have been listened to. Indeed, taken alongside the recent ‘make work pay’ changes in the budget and roll backs on child benefit, there is room for optimism. Civil servants have clearly heard the need for prevention and what we have ended up with is a potentially gold-plated set of early measures to intervene in the early days.

But we must also be clear that prevention is just one leg of the youth housing stool and without changes to the financial settlement for those under 25, nor any new commitments of youth-specific housing, there is little to give hope that things will change quickly or at all for the 1,400 young people who have walked through our doors this year. There is no guarantee that the prevention agenda itself is enough to turn off the tap, and certainly nothing to mop up the devastation of the already considerable tsunami of youth homelessness over recent years.

When it comes to campaigning there is, I believe, a tendency to be grateful for what we are given, regardless of whether it is what we wanted. So yes, a subsection might be better than the nothing we had before, but we should also be clear that this isn’t nearly enough and now might be the time that feet need to approach the fire. Pieces of paper alone will not solve this mess. Toolkits are only any use if they are also full of tools.

Let’s instead talk about what isn’t there. Where are the multi-million pound programmes of support for young people being rolled out as they are for veterans, those in recovery or with multiple disadvantage? Where are the commitments to youth specific emergency housing that we saw in the last government strategy? Indeed, where is any discussion at all of the single biggest barrier young people face – finding housing when they are in receipt of so much less money.

The answer of course is that there is none. We started this campaign because for too long young people have been bottom of the priority list, forced to navigate a system designed for the adult world that has failed them.  And yet, reading the strategy I fear that is exactly where we are at risk of ending up.

At New Horizon Youth Centre we are optimists but we are pragmatists too. We know that we do not live in a time of abundance. We know that the government has financial constraints and competing priorities. But we also know too that if this government is serious about ending homelessness then it will also need to get serious about ending youth homelessness. If they are serious about that then this strategy will need to go further and faster.

Perhaps the flames at their heels will encourage that, for I know we will be continuing to fan them.

Phil Kerry is CEO of New Horizon Youth Centre.

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