10th October 2018

An interview with End Youth Homelessness

In the past year, 86,000 16-25-year-olds asked their local authority for help because they were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and that’s just the young people that asked. It’s an astonishing figure that shows the precariousness of the lives of many young people, who for a multitude of reasons don’t have a safe or stable at home.

But it might surprise you to know that until relatively recently there was no nationwide body connecting all the local authorities and services working specifically with young people. And that was the genesis of End Youth Homelessness. A UK-wide network, EYH brings together the many charities across the country, helping them to share knowledge, raise awareness of the issues faced by young people and ultimately raise funds.

What particularly struck us about EYH’s approach is how it aims to address both the immediate problems of homelessness as well as longer-term issues, like mental health challenges, gaps in education and finding a job. Vital though night shelters are – breaking the cycle of homelessness isn’t just about short-term solutions to rough sleeping. There’s a whole eco-system of needs and services that young people might need to get back on their feet.

Homelessness is an issue very close to our hearts at Zetteler – we’re honoured to support Hackney Night Shelter and Restoration Station, both with PR assistance and on the ground. So we’re thrilled to be helping End Youth Homelessness out with its marketing and PR strategy, and training its team up to create impactful campaigns that speak from the heart. Read on to find out more about the work of this awesome charity, in our Q&A with EYH’s Madeleine Klimowicz…

Tell us about how End Youth Homelessness’ approach is different to other similar charities…

End Youth Homelessness is a UK-wide network of local charities that have joined forces to tackle youth homelessness. Together with our member charities, we support over 30,000 young people in the UK. EYH helps charities collaborate to raise awareness and funds, helping youth homelessness charities across the country provide more and better services for vulnerable young people. We believe that youth homelessness and adult homelessness are distinct issues that need distinct solutions. All our members provide dedicated services that are targeted specifically at homeless young people. We do this because we know that homeless young people have boundless potential; they can achieve great things if they only have the opportunity. We also know that if you help young people out of homelessness today, you stop the rough sleepers of tomorrow, breaking the cycle of homelessness for good.

What are the biggest factors that contribute to a young person becoming homeless?

Young people find themselves homeless for a variety of complex and distressing reasons and, contrary to popular belief, not usually by choice. In fact, 54% of homeless young people became homeless due to family breakdown. This could be due to the fact a parent or carer has a new partner that doesn’t want them around, they could be kicked out for being LBGTQ+ or because they suffer from a mental illness. Homelessness is never by choice.

Many young people are also forced to leave home because of extremely dangerous situations – 10% leave home because of domestic abuse. Traumas that are caused and characterised by homelessness make homeless young people some of the most vulnerable in our society. Their traumatic pasts mean they struggle to hold down a job, get an education, or a home. Understanding how a young person becomes homeless is the first step in breaking the negative stigma surrounding the public’s perception of homelessness.

What are the barriers for young people turning their lives around?

The circumstances leading up to, and the issues resulting from, a young person becoming homeless makes it exceedingly difficult for young people to get their lives on track. Arguably, the biggest barrier is housing. Many of our young people find it virtually impossible to access the private rented sector because the rents and deposits are too high, and landlords are often unwilling to let to young people with such troubled backgrounds. To address this, we have launched the Rent Deposit Scheme, which supports homeless young people into their own privately rented homes, by essentially acting as their guarantor.

Another pressing issue facing homeless young people is their poor physical and mental health. More than 80% have a mental health problem, 60% have a physical health problem and, sadly, 18% have attempted suicide. Their chaotic lives mean they struggle to eat healthily, maintain personal hygiene, exercise regularly or access professional health advice.

Unsurprisingly, it also causes gaps in education, making it much more difficult for them to access secure employment opportunities. With few qualifications and little or no work experience, securing paid employment is often out of their reach. Yet we know that each young person has their own talents, dreams and aspirations, so we provide a wide range of services to enable young people to work towards their career and education goals.

You’ve worked with amazing creatives like Black Dog Films and Dan Medhurst on developing recent campaigns. Tell us a little bit about walking the line between making ads impactful but without perpetuating stereotypes of homeless people…

Walking this line can be quite difficult, as the general public tends to view adult homelessness and youth homelessness as the same issue. However, the two are fundamentally different. Most homelessness charities focus on rough sleeping because it is the most visible and therefore the easiest for people to understand. However, rough sleeping is merely one manifestation of a much broader problem, with the majority of homeless young people being the “hidden homeless”. It usually starts with sofa surfing, moving between the floors or sofas of friends, family and casual acquaintances until they exhaust goodwill. Young people then resort to desperate measures such as rough sleeping, sleeping on night buses, finding a “date” for the night on Tinder, or injuring themselves to access a hospital bed.

This year in particular, we’ve focussed on repositioning youth homelessness as a message of hope, with this message underpinning everything we do. In May this year we launched our Turn Lives Around campaign, where we secured pro bono creative support from WCRS, production from Black Dog Films, and media provided by Jack Agency. The brand awareness campaign depicted homeless young people asleep in unsafe places. However, when the pictures were inverted you could see our young people in heroic poses, with their sleeping bags becoming superheroes’ capes billowing in flight.

The campaign aimed to change the public’s perceptions of youth homelessness and transform the stereotype of homeless people to one of hope. Homeless young people have the potential to beat the odds and turn their lives around, if they get the right help at the right time. EYH want to stress that despite incredibly difficult childhoods, homeless young people can still build successful futures and become tomorrow’s doctors, scientists or entrepreneurs.

How is the current political climate impacting on vulnerable young people?

It’s difficult to know the true scale of the youth homelessness problem because national data is patchy. We do know that last year alone, 86,000 16-25-year-olds asked their local authority for help because they were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. In a recent survey by Homeless Link, it was found that over half of the responding homelessness services reported an increase in demand, suggesting that homelessness is on the increase. These respondents identified a lack of affordable housing, supported accommodation and welfare benefit reform as causing the increases in youth homelessness.

Ultimately, the services available to homeless young people are stretched to their very limit meaning many young people are at serious risk of falling through the cracks and now more than ever, the work our member charities do is of vital importance.

What can people do if they want to support your work?

Sign up for Sleep Out! It’s our flagship fundraising event, which will be taking place in over 14 locations across the UK this November. It’s a great way to get a tiny taste of what it might be like to be homeless, whilst raising vital funds for a great cause! If you’d like to fundraise, volunteer or get your business involved in our work, contact us. And follow our socials: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Twitter: @eyh_uk

Facebook: endyouthhomelessness

Instagram: @eyh_uk

LinkedIn: endyouthhomelessness

We’re so excited to be supporting this important charity – find out what we do for End Youth Homelessness here.

If you also want to support the work of End Youth Homelessness, find out more about how to get involved here.