Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
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More 'buddy' mentors to reduce youth homelessness

More 'buddy' mentors to reduce youth homelessness

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT News Release (103) issued by The Government News Network on 9 May 2008

A new drive to 'buddy up' young people with positive role models to help prevent youth homelessness is to be announced today by Housing Minister Iain Wright.

Whilst the number of young people under 25 becoming homeless last quarter fell by more than 1,000 (15 per cent) compared to the previous year, as a result of investment in prevention services, they still account for 39 per cent of all new cases of homelessness.

Peer mentoring has made a difference in preventing homelessness by providing support at a crucial time for young people who may be experiencing personal difficulties or family breakdowns. Family intervention and mediation can also be key in stopping young people at risk from making the step to leaving home by working together to identify the problems and move together to a solution.

The Government now wants to encourage all local authorities to offer these services as part of a new strategy to drive down youth homelessness, alongside other approaches such as supported lodgings.

A young person can become 'buddied up' in a number of ways: they can be referred to the scheme by their school, by a local authority or a housing organisation, or they may simply apply direct for support having heard of the scheme through word of mouth or seeing a leaflet or poster in their local community.

Peer mentors, like the young people they help, may come from any number of backgrounds, though many have first hand experience of homelessness. They may help a young person at risk from homelessness through offering practical advice over a coffee, or by pointing the way to local services or local educational or training opportunities - or by simply being around to listen.

The Housing Minister will highlight the case of Eleena Fraser, a peer mentor at homelessness charity St. Basil's. Having experienced homelessness when a teenager, Eleena is currently providing support, advice and access to services for young people. Eleena first came into contact with peer mentoring when she applied to a charity for support to buy a cooker for her new flat. Due to her experience of homelessness a co-ordinator asked her if she was interested in becoming a mentor herself.
Housing Minister Iain Wright said:

'We all want to help young people from becoming homeless in the first place. That's why prevention is so important. Sometimes living at home may become difficult, and the only option may appear to be to walk away, but through family mediation and support from a peer mentor like Eleena, we can give that helping hand to keep families together and avoid homelessness."

The Government is determined to reduce youth homelessness and has already put in place a commitment to end the use of B&Bs for young people at risk of homelessness by 2010. Already, the number of homeless 16/17 year olds staying in B&Bs has fallen from over 1000 in 2006 to 550 today.

Department of Children, Schools and Families Minister Beverley Hughes said:

"As we said in the Children's Plan we want this country to be the best place in the world to grow up for all children, which must include tackling youth homelessness. That means we need children's services and housing departments to work together to stop children getting to crisis point and ending up homeless or in unsafe or unsuitable accommodation.

"When young people are homeless, placing them in B & Bs as a short term solution is completely unacceptable. We will work with local authorities to stamp this out, considering other stricter forms of intervention if necessary. We need to support homeless young people for as long as they need, offering to help them return to their families, find the right education, training or employment and to lead a healthy lifestyle, and help them on to the path to success."

Speaking at the second National Youth Homelessness Conference the housing minister will launch the document 'Strategy in practice - joint work with Housing and Children's Services' calling on local authorities to work 'better together' to ensure 16/17 year olds get the support they need when on the verge of homelessness.

He will announce:

* A new CLG / DCSF good practice guide on improving outcomes for 16/17 year olds. The document "Strategy in practice- joint work with Housing and Children's services' will highlight how Local Authorities can successfully link housing services with children's services to improve the outcomes for young people - children at risk from factors such as disrupted education or violence can be supported earlier which may avoid them becoming homeless.

* A new drive calling on local authorities to champion the use of peer mentors. Schemes such as 'Safe Moves' not only improve lives through improving the outcomes for young people, the costs also can be much lower than traditional homeless intervention.

* A DCSF leaflet for housing authorities on Targeted Youth Support - about identifying those young people in need and working together to prevent homelessness, with action such as family intervention or mediation. For those already in temporary accommodation the guidance will provide best practice on providing them with the support, access to education, training, jobs and life-skills they may require when first living alone.

News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom

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