Social care - Why youth housing must improve

Each year, 75,000 young people contact homelessness services. Housing and homelessness are also the most common reasons for young people seeking out youth advice services, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The recession is making the situation worse, and yet housing policy is hardly centre stage in children's and youth policy development.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) wants this to change. Meeting the housing needs of young people was high on the agenda at its annual conference this week.

Last August, a forum to discuss housing for young people was launched by the institute in partnership with the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which was due to feed in to the government's green paper on housing reform.

But, with four housing ministers to hold the post in the past two years, plans for the green paper have been delayed, prompting the institute to renew calls for young people to be prioritised.

Reform needed

It remains unclear when the housing reform green paper will be published. But Steve Hillman, head of policy at the Foyer Federation, which provides accommodation for 16- to 25-year-olds, sees the most recent ministerial changes as an opportunity to assess where the reform stands and drive it forward.

The federation has been told by the DCLG that the green paper will contain a youth offer for under-19s. It is now helping shape that offer.

Hillman believes it should include three key elements. "Housing should be part of a package that includes employment, learning and skills, and personal support in order for young people to make a successful transition to adulthood. Secondly, there must be a deal where young people must engage with the process of, for example, finding a job or gaining qualifications, in order to receive the support."

He also wants to see young people engaging actively in citizenship, providing some sort of benefit for their local community.

CIH policy officer John Thornhill believes that for change to happen, it is vital to keep the issue of young people's housing needs alive in the run-up to the next election.

Along with colleague Joanne Smith, Thornhill is compiling a report, sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Due to be published in the next two months, it will explore how links between housing and schools can enhance the development of a community. It will also look at young people's housing options and how to increase their influence on issues that matter to them.

End marginalisation

"We know there is not enough social housing around and the rents of private tenancies are astronomical," Thornhill explains. "But as well as the issues of affordability and access to housing there is the problem of young people's empowerment and marginalisation in the community."

To help overcome this, the institute has been working with The National Youth Agency and its Hear by Right framework, which offers standards for organisations to improve their practice on the participation of children and young people.

Whether the latest housing minister John Healey will decide to drive these reforms forward remains to be seen. But campaigners are lobbying to make sure that he appreciates the importance of children and young people's housing needs.

Housing Policy: What young people say needs to change

"Banks encourage young people to borrow but not save. Young people have to do their own research - there is nowhere to get the advice on what to do."

Ruhul Alam, 22

"I know a lot of girls who leave home because they clash with their mums and when they move out they have a better relationship. There is too much trouble around here, I want to move to a quieter area but I can't afford the rent."

Sophie Herbert, 16

"The number of repossessions that are happening now could have been averted if people were told about what it means to buy a house. We need to be told about things like how to save money."

Mohammed Hussain, 21

"Even if this area looks like a slum, house prices stay high because you are in the same postcode as the Docklands. We have to get rid of these postcode prices and only pay what the house is worth."

Aleef Ahmed, 22

"The government should increase housing and provide young people with courses about housing and independent living."

Hasan Bukhari, 21

"There needs to be more provision for educating children. But it should not be forced through GCSEs or curriculum, because children may not want to learn it if they are forced to."

Andrew Ben Salem, 17

The young people are all members of the Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association's youth empowerment board in London's East End