The Number of Young People Rough Sleeping Is Rising in These English Towns and Cities

A bench in the bird hide of a Cornwall boating lake became Damian’s bed in January of this year. With no sleeping bag, and as the temperature plummeted to single digits at night, he layered up the few items of clothing he had in an effort to ward off the elements and retain as much of his body heat as possible.

Damian, 27, had little time to decide where he would be safest outside. Just 24 hours earlier, he had a bed in a hotel as part of the government’s “Everyone in” scheme, which attempted to provide accommodation for people on the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Damian’s time in the hotel was cut short. With the UK in the depths of its deadly second wave, he never imagined he would be told to leave because the funding had run out and work needed to be done on the room to make it available for tourists. “I was devastated and upset, and at the same time anxious and nervous about where I was going to end up that night,” he says.

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said no one had been asked to leave any emergency accommodation because of a lack of funding during the pandemic, and alternatives were offered if rooms were no longer available.

Damian had already slept on the streets months before, and first became homeless when he had to move out of the friend’s place where he’d been staying in May of 2020. Within a fortnight, he was housed in the hotel.

Damian moved into shared accommodation provided by local homelessness charity St Petrocs in May of this year, but is one of several young people who slept rough in Cornwall during the pandemic. More than 17 percent of its rough sleeping population in 2020 were 25 and under, while the national average is 5 percent. The southwest coastal county had the second-highest number of 18 to 25-year-olds living on the street in England after Westminster, London, according to government data.

Almost all areas in England saw a dramatic decline in the overall number of people on the streets last year, but the rough sleeping population in Cornwall grew by 21 percent, the government’s rough sleeping autumn snapshot shows. For under-26s, the increase was closer to two-thirds.

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: “At the start of lockdown, the council acted quickly to put in place suitable accommodation for rough sleepers, including at holiday parks and hotels, in temporary self-contained homes on two council-owned sites in mid and west Cornwall and using our own and housing association stock so that vulnerable people had somewhere safe to stay during the pandemic.

"We have more than double the usual number of households in temporary accommodation – including those under the Everyone In initiative – and continue to operate four Covid-accommodation sites, with plans in place to replace them when they need to be decommissioned.  

“We will work with each person to agree move-on plans that address not just their housing needs, but the support they need so they don’t end up returning to a life on the streets.”

The 2020 figures on rough sleeping in England also show year-on-year increases in the number of 18 to 25-year-olds living on the streets in other areas outside of the capital, including East Suffolk, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Swindon. A greater number of people across all age ranges were seen sleeping rough in areas including Portsmouth, North Somerset, Shropshire, Exeter, Stoke-on-Trent and East Devon.

Nearly half of all the people sleeping rough counted by the government were in London and the southeast. But more people were living on the streets of Manchester than in any other area outside of London. The total number, 68, was a quarter fewer than counted in 2019, and included four under-26s, a drop of just three young people from the previous year’s count.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, launched a homelessness prevention strategy to tackle the root causes of homelessness and rough sleeping in May. The drive includes plans to build 30,000 homes for social rent across the region, and the introduction of a Good Landlord Charter.

Paul Dennett, Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s lead on housing and homelessness, said at the time: “Homelessness is a consequence of a failing system. In order to prevent homelessness, we must centre on the experiences of people who face inequalities and discrimination that put them at higher risk of homelessness. The wellbeing and participation of those involved in working to find a solution is critical, as is increasing the supply of truly affordable housing, tackling poverty pay and job insecurity and reforming welfare.”

The helpline run by youth homeless charity Centrepoint received more calls from young people experiencing homelessness in Manchester than anywhere else in England outside of London during the pandemic. Paul Brocklehurst, the charity’s senior helpline manager, says this could be because it has a base there and is well known in the north-western city. Youth homelessness remains a nationwide problem, he says: “We get calls from every part of the country. It isn’t just cities – it is rural areas, small towns, and it is prevalent everywhere.”

Baz, 26, became street homeless a few miles outside of Manchester at the beginning of the year. His father passed away in December after becoming infected with COVID-19. The following months saw Baz's relationship with his mother break down, and he was forced to leave home.

He spent any money he had on hotel rooms, and crashed at friends’ houses so he didn’t have to sleep on the streets. But he lost his job, and the money quickly ran out. Baz would stay up all night, walking the streets, and sometimes slept in his mum’s garden. “I napped on benches... I’ve had to put my head down at some point,” he says.

Most of the young people who called Centrepoint’s helpline (59 percent) over the last year said they became homeless because of a breakdown in family relationships. Brocklehurst says such calls highlighted how the pandemic and national lockdowns created a “pressure cooker environment” at home, especially where there were tensions around a lack of acceptance of a young person’s sexuality or religion, or arguments about drug and alcohol use. 

“When people are put in that situation where they can’t leave to stay with a mate for a couple of days and let things cool down, it brought things to head a lot quicker,” he says.

Young workers also suffered heavily as the pandemic hit the job market. About two-thirds of job losses were those of 16 to 24-year-olds, data in March showed. The labour market is showing signs of recovery, but 529,000 young people were unemployed between February and April of 2021, and youth unemployment is still below pre-pandemic levels.

Lauren Page-Hammick, the youth homelessness manager at Homeless Link, says: “Younger people bear the brunt of insecurity in our society. They are more likely to be in lower-paid, less secure jobs and insecure housing. Meanwhile, age restrictions often limit what welfare they can claim, meaning they can have very few options when it comes to finding housing.”

Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, says: “In the last year, more young people at high risk of homelessness have turned to our frontline services for help. It’s been awful to see the toll taken by family breakdowns, domestic abuse, lost jobs and illegal evictions over the course of the pandemic. 

“Young people are often in the least secure jobs or on the lowest incomes, and because of this they face an uphill battle in affording a safe and secure home. For those that can’t find anywhere to go, bedding down on the streets with all the danger that brings may be the end result. That is why the action taken by the government at the start of the pandemic to help people off the streets, through its initial Everyone In initiative, was so important, but what happens to those facing the streets now? The status of Everyone In and the government’s plans to help people are unclear.

“If the government is to honour its election promise to end rough sleeping by 2024, people at risk will need access to homes they can afford. Only a new generation of genuinely affordable social homes, alongside long-term funding for support services, can end homelessness for good.”

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We have helped 37,000 people into accommodation through our ongoing Everyone In scheme, and we are providing over £750 million this year alone to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. The Homelessness Reduction Act means that many more young people previously not eligible are now being helped to avoid homelessness. We have also put in place tailored support for councils, which includes dedicated youth homelessness advisor roles.”

Baz moved into emergency accommodation provided by Stepping Stone Projects, a charity in Greater Manchester that supports vulnerable people, in June. When we speak he’s upbeat and getting back on his feet, searching for a new job and long-term housing. He also has hopes of rebuilding his relationship with his mum.

Baz realises he is more fortunate than some. He speaks of one young girl he remembers sleeping in the park. “Every so often, I pass that park, like yesterday, and guess what... she was there,” he says. “It’s harsh, it’s tough, it’s upsetting. People out there need help ... It touched me. I wanted to speak to her.”

Baz passed by knowing he could not help, but thoughts of what the girl was going through weighed heavily on in his mind. He knew she would not be the same in a few months’ time as the streets continued to take their toll.