Centrepoint

Our Growth Board’s co-Chair, Jamie Reuben, published a piece in the Telegraph, arguing that fixing youth homelessness requires radical thinking. Ahead of the opening of Centrepoint’s first Independent Living Programme development in Peckham, south London, Jamie suggests there is no reason why we cannot realistically aim for thousands of similar homes across the UK by 2030, which will be the key to making a lasting impact to reduce youth homelessness – in 2023 and beyond.

The UK housing market faces multiple crises, impacting young people the most. The extra funding the Prime Minister has unveiled to tackle homelessness will certainly help, but we cannot simply rely on central government funding to solve this problem. We need new approaches to support novel housing projects providing homes for those young people without safe accommodation, addressing their specific needs. And we need to build them quickly.

So many projects are held up by the challenge of navigating local councils to get planning permission. Forward-looking local authorities should see projects that are consciously aimed at providing safe and stable accommodation for vulnerable young people as a huge opportunity. With the will to fast-track approval, councils can make a quick impact to help young people in their local area.

This thinking has been wrapped into Centrepoint’s Independent Living Programme. We are about to open the Programme’s first development in Peckham, southeast London. Our residents are moving into 33 brand new modular homes, kitted out for single person living, and with rent capped at one third of the resident’s salary. Southwark Council deserves praise for seeing the value of this project to aid planning permission, and we hope it will encourage other local authorities to do the same.

Thirty-three homes may sound like a small number, which, on its own, will not make a huge dent in homelessness figures. But we also have a bigger target to build 300 homes across London, Manchester and other UK towns and cities by 2026. Now that our vision is becoming a reality in Peckham, there is no reason why we cannot realistically aim for thousands of similar homes across the UK by 2030.

On 28^th May people up and down the UK will STAY:UP all night to stand up for homeless young people. Because going just one night without sleep could help change homeless young people’s lives forever. The challenge is simple: STAY:UP all night from 8pm-8am. For many, this will be a nice way to reconnect after an incredibly isolating year. Others will “up” their challenge to add more difficulty to their evening and encourage fundraising.

We are expecting an income loss in excess of £2 million, as large numbers of our fundraising activities and events are now cancelled. We don’t know how long this crisis will continue for and every extra month will add significant increased costs. That’s why STAY:UP has been launched as we aim to recruit 3,000 people to take part and raise £500,000 to help mitigate this loss. The fundraising target has been set at a very accessible at £100 to encourage participation from a board range of companies and team size.

There will be content on Instagram throughout the night to give people the sense of community which mass participation events are so important for. This will include pre-recorded videos, live content, interactive polls or quizzes and fundraising updates with aggregates of content supporters are sharing on social media.

For more information and to sign up please go to https://stayup.centrepoint.org.uk/