Derby council urged not to slash funding for youth homelessness services

In an open letter to council leader Paul Bayliss, the chief executive of YMCA Derbyshire Gillian Sewell said: “The proposed scale of the cut is surely not proportionate and represents a decimation of support for vulnerable people in housing crisis, including young people.

“The cut goes much further than other comparable local authority areas and will cause real harm to the local community as a whole.”

Rachel Morris, head of housing and communities at YMCA Derbyshire added: “At the moment we don’t know whether that will mean all funding for 16 to 17 year olds will disappear. If that happens it will have a dramatic effect on the lives of young people.”

The YMCA has 88 supported housing places at its "campus for learning and development" in Derby.

But Sewell's letter warned that the cuts “will leave the services we and others provide in tatters".

"The cost of this ill-judged and tragic step would be measured not just in terms of vulnerable lives destroyed and communities damaged but also in terms of local jobs lost and investment curtailed," she said.

The council is currently considering proposals to cut its annual £9.4m Supporting People budget by £6.1m. By 2014, just £3.2m will be available for housing related support services if the plans are approved.

Under the previous funding structure 49 services including the YMCA received funding to support more than 5,000 people a year.

Residents of YMCA’s campus have also written to the council to oppose the cuts. One 17-year-old said: “I have been on the streets four times, YMCA offers a safer place as it’s harder to be robbed or killed as you never know what’s around the corner. If funding is cut I will be back on the streets.”

Another, aged 16, said: “What else is the money being spent on? The council need to think about what they are doing and think from our point of view for a change.”

A Derby City Council spokeswoman said that a consultation surrounding the plans, which launched in May, is still open. She declined to comment further.

Figures released by the government earlier this year show that 4,310 16- to 24-year-olds were officially declared homeless between October and December last year. This is up 11 per cent on figures for the same period the previous year.