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New data collected from councils across England by Centrepoint shows some 22,000 young people aged 16-25 will be or are at risk of homelessness this Christmas.

Centrepoint says the true scale of the crisis is hard to imagine, but in England the number of young people at risk of not having a safe place to call home this winter is comparable to the capacity of a sold-out gig at The O2 arena in London (20,000), or Birmingham’s NEC Arena (15,600).

In addition to the council data, Centrepoint spoke to more than 200 young people, each of whom have recently experienced homelessness.

The responses reveal:

  • 72% of homeless young people said homelessness had a negative impact on their mental health
  • 40% said it had a negative impact on their ability to access or sustain education
  • 69% felt no-one cared about them, and 67% of homeless young people felt lonely while homeless
  • 33% of homeless young people have spent the night in a park because they had nowhere else to stay, and 17% have done so more than once
  • 27% of homeless young people have spent the night in a tent because they had nowhere else to stay
  • 10% of homeless young people have spent the night on a night bus because they had nowhere else to stay
  • 73% of homeless young people have sofa-surfed because they had nowhere else to stay
  • 37% of homeless young people have stayed in an abusive home with a parent or guardian because they had nowhere else to stay

Centrepoint’s Databank project collects data on the number of young people who approached their council over the Christmas period for help as they were homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The Databank project is ongoing, but all data is correct as of August this year.

248 councils have provided data on how many young people presented to them over this period (76% of all councils in England).

Through computational extrapolation to all 326 councils, Centrepoint estimates that 22,250 young people will seek help in England between November 2019 and January 2020.

Research of young people who have experienced homelessness takes stats from a survey of 227 homeless young people living in Centrepoint and Centrepoint partner accommodation in England and Wales over in June/July this year.

“For every person we reach, there are hundreds more who need support. With the problem of youth homeless growing, we need to pull together and take urgent action to protect vulnerable young people and make sure every young person has a safe place to call home and the future they deserve,” said Centrepoint CEO Seyi Obakin.

Case Study: Jamie

At just 16, Jamie was referred to Centrepoint by social services due to neglect.

Since then, she has sought help from Centrepoint on four different occasions over a period of six years.

During this turbulent period of her life, she has moved back and forth from her mum’s, stayed on friends’ sofas, with boyfriends, and at a particularly low point, a tent in a park.

On numerous occasions, Centrepoint was able to offer Jamie some stability among the chaos.

“I had to sleep rough at least three times. It was really scary. I have a tent and I slept in a park for 24 hours at a time and then sought help from the hostel again. I don’t know how people sleep in tents on the concrete – its heartbreaking,” said Jamie.

“I had no money, food or clothes at one point. I ended up stripping for a couple of weeks. It was just a means to an end. People did try and encourage me to get into dealing drugs which is tempting when you’ve got no money – but thankfully I didn’t go down that route,” she said.

Jamie has recently completed a Masters in Dance and is now working to set up a creative outreach project at Centrepoint.