Sussex's youth homelessness 'far higher' than before pandemic

YMCA DownsLink Group, working across Sussex and Surrey, provides accommodation to more than 750 young people every night and offers a wide range of services through its youth advice centres.

It runs supported housing in Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings, Horsham, Mid Sussex and Worthing.

Chas Walker, the charity’s chief executive officer, has written an open letter to MPs warning them of the crisis facing organisations like theirs in the supported housing sector.

At the start of the pandemic YMCA DownsLink Group saw a 61 per cent increase in the number of young people presenting as homeless across Sussex and its base in Guildford. Although this dropped last year, it has stabilised at around 37 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.

It is facing a large increase in its energy costs at the same time as a squeeze on its main source of income, which is from public sector partnership contracts.

The cost of living crisis is also seeing many ‘skilled and dedicated’ front-line workers leave the sector because they cannot afford to live on what the charity is able to pay.

Mr Walker wrote: “We appreciate that there is already significant strain on national finances, following Covid and there are demands across different sectors for financial government support. However, we believe that investing in the charitable sector, particularly around youth homelessness, youth work and mental health, ultimately saves the Government significant money.”

He explained how investing in young people at ‘this crucial stage in their lives has huge long-term benefits’ as it prevents young people become intrenched in homelessness and associated offending behaviours, supports young people back into education, work and employment, prevents sexual and criminal exploitation through targeted youth work, reduces severity and length of mental health illness through early intervention and prevents homelessness from happening through family mediation & advice services.

His letter welcomes the government’s recent policy announcement with its commitment to ending rough sleeping. However the charity’s fear is without some direct support for the sector, the infrastructure the government is relying on to deliver this policy ‘won’t exist’, making the pledge 'unachievable’.

Mr Walker said: “We would value connecting with you further and would like to invite you to visit us and our projects so that you can see for yourself the impact of the work that we do.”

Despite the challenges of rising demand, he says the charity’s commitment to tackling youth homelessness in its communities is ‘unwavering’. In the past year to deal with the surge, it increased the number of beds it provides to 787, providing young people (16-24) with a safe home and a pathway back into education, training or employment.

On average a young person lives with them for around two years and the charity equips them with the life skills they need to ‘move on’ into successful independent living.

The letter explains: “This stability, after a chaotic start in life, can make all the difference to their long-term future. Whilst we managed to successfully navigate the Covid pandemic, keeping all of our services running, including our mental health and youth advice services, we and the young people we support, face an unprecedented financial crisis which threatens our future.”

The charity’s utility costs are set to triple from £500,000 to £1.5million and unlike the business sector it cannot pass these on to the young people it supports because they will not be able to afford their rent. YMCA DownsLink does not have the financial reserves to absorb these costs over a sustained period and while it welcomes the six-month cap on energy costs, it needs longer-term certainty to sustain its current service levels.

Currently its main source of income is from public sector partnership contracts which are being squeezed and in general are not getting an inflationary uplift.

The letter highlighted how the government is consulting registered housing providers on capping the current rent settlement uplift of CPI plus one per cent to between three and seven per cent. Mr Walker says he understands the need to protect social housing residents and housing associations need to absorb a share of this. But he points out the registered housing sector is diverse and there is a big difference between larger housing associations and providers like them.

He said: “Applying a cap to our rent uplift will put a strain on our organisation, and others running supported housing, that could fundamentally destabilise the sector.”

Meanwhile in addition to these pressures the fundraising landscape is also challenging as individuals are seeing their disposable income fall drastically, with charities all competing for limited grants and trust funding.

Mr Walker’s letter continues: “As outlined earlier, the need for our services is increasing. As local authority thresholds for statutory support rise, more young people are ineligible for help with unaffordable housing, so reach out to charities like YMCA.

"At both a national and local level, funding for preventative services, like youth work, is at an all-time low. In addition, whilst the number of young people seeking help for mental health and emotional wellbeing issues was rising pre-pandemic, the current levels, and increased severity of those issues, is at epidemic proportions.

“Moreover, as the cost of living crisis worsens and families and young people come under increasing financial pressure, we will see even greater demand for our support services (homelessness prevention, family mediation, counselling). We’re also concerned by the planned changes (Mini Budget 23rd Sept 2022) to Universal Credit and threat to benefits that risk plunging people, particularly young people, further into poverty.”

For more information about the charity, visit www.ymcadlg.org