We can't let 'generation rent' turn into 'generation tent'

Almost 20 years ago, as I embarked on the first of many Council of Europe international reviews of national youth policies, I discovered that the average age of leaving home in Spain was approaching 32. I registered the information as being all the more significant because housing issues were rarely, if ever, discussed on the youth policy agenda. There was apparently no issue.

But there was, and 20 years on, throughout Europe, the housing crisis for the young is biting hard. In the UK, hardly a week goes by without some new fact about the decreasing likelihood of the young ever being able to afford their own home, escalating rental costs or the resurfacing of horrendous levels of youth homelessness. Not long ago, there was a report of a young homeless care leaver living in a tent, but we only heard about her because she was murdered on the streets. In September, it was announced there were 100,000 children who were officially homeless, largely from families whose tenancies had ended and who were unable to find another affordable place to live.