News from Siân Berry: Urgent action needed to address growing youth homelessness crisis

Rapid action needs to be taken to support the historic high numbers of homeless young people in London, Sian Berry AM urged today.

Sian called on the Assembly to back the Green amendment to the Mayor’s budget, which found £3 million for a dedicated youth homelessness budget to fund accommodation and specialist support services for homeless under-25s.

In December the Assembly unanimously backed Sian’s motion calling for a dedicated fund to protect homeless young people on the streets [1]. It is a response backed by homelessness charities, who found that 46 per cent of young people sleeping rough have additional needs, especially related to mental health and emotional wellbeing. [2]

It’s devastating to hear that more and more young people in London are being forced out onto the streets. The Assembly recognises this much. In December they unanimously backed my motion calling for the Mayor to take action to provide more support to homeless under-25s.

It’s time the Assembly backed their support with concrete actions. If we fail to provide proper support hundreds of young people in London risk seeing their first nights on the streets spiral into long-term problems.

That is why the £3 million allocation I put forward today for specific support for homeless under-25s should be seen both as a matter of urgency and as investment in the future.

We are all rightly focused on the recovery, but that means recovery means not leaving our most vulnerable behind, not leaving a generation of young people on the backfoot.

Since the Mayor’s budget plenary in January, a new report has emerged from New Horizons showing a 20 per cent rise in homelessness between October – December 2020 on the same period the previous year. [3]

Last year a historic high in youth homelessness was revealed by two leading youth homelessness charities, Centrepoint and New Horizons Youth Centre. It followed data collected from July to September 2020, which showed a rise from 250 under-25s rough sleeping in 2019 to 368 this year, an increase of 47 per cent. [4]

Sian’s proposal of £3 million in youth homelessness support is more than double the £1.18 million proposed in the previous amendment. This is to reflect the additional power the Mayor now has following news of better-than-expected business rate and council tax returns.

Sian’s plans were part of a six-part amendment put forward by Assembly Member colleague Caroline Russell today. The amendment in full included:

1. Providing a new pathway to move London’s zero carbon target from 2050 to 2030

2. A package of measures to make our city better for people who walk, especially in outer London, including improvements to junctions, more crossings to cross the road safely and better learning and engagement on new plans

3. The purchase of new London Living Rent homes owned by the GLA to help key workers

4. Dedicated funding for youth homelessness services and beds

5. A road charging study that focuses on engagement with Londoners and explores preferred schemes, outcomes and mitigation measures

6. Funding grants for London’s independent renters’ rights groups

The proposals will be funded using a total of £425.15 million, including drawing down £400 million in total from funding unallocated in the 2016-23 affordable housing grant programme funding and the portion available for acquisitions within the 2021-26 affordable housing grant programme, £1.85 million from the £176.5 million business rates reserves, £3 million by diverting some of the proposed transfer to the MDC reserve, and £20.3 million over two years raised by increasing Transport for London (TfL) traffic enforcement notices on red routes. [5]