'Disturbing' rise in young Londoners sleeping rough

A spokesperson for youth homelessness charity Depaul UK says young people “hit particularly hard by the cost-of-living crisis”

a person on a london street offers a hand to someone homeless — Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash

Rough sleeping in London is up by a third compared with this time last year, according new statistics from London’s Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN).

Responding to today’s report, Dan Dumoulin, Director of Development and External Affairs for youth homelessness charity Depaul UK said: “This staggering increase in rough sleeping aligns almost exactly with the increase we have seen in referrals to our national emergency accommodation service, Nightstop. It’s totally unacceptable that we live in one of the richest cities in the world and yet we still can’t prevent ever more people sleeping on the streets at night.

Drawing attention to the prevalence of young people in the figures, he said: “It’s particularly disturbing to see a 48 per cent increase in the number of young people sleeping rough. Young people tend to have lower incomes and so have been hit particularly hard by the cost-of-living crisis.

“Decades of underfunding in the housing sector and stark local authority cuts are putting pressure on an already buckling housing system. There is an urgent need for Mayoral investment in places like Depaul UK’s London Youth Hub, an emergency accommodation service in London, which supports young people to move-on into longer-term accommodation. We also need more funding for prevention services, as well as far more affordable housing.

“The winner of next Thursday’s Mayoral election will certainly have their work cut out to reduce rough sleeping in London, but we know that by working together, the Mayor, central and local government as well as charities like Depaul UK can solve the problem.”

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