Agenda item

            The Board considered a presentation from John Mackie and Kristine Pluger, Halton YMCA on the most appropriate factors raised by the young people on services provided for Young Homeless People.

 

            The Board was advised that over the last year Halton YMCA Foyer and other homeless accommodation projects in Halton, had experienced a significant increase in the number of applications for housing from homeless young people. These had come from referral agencies, such as Housing Solutions, Young People’s Team, the Youth Offending Team and self referrals.

 

Another significant impact on the increase in young homeless referrals had been due to the newly established Halton YMCA Night Stop Project, a project developed to address the prevention of homelessness among young people most at risk.  With this new homeless provision, young people were placed with volunteer “hosts” for up to 3 weeks, during which time, suitable safe and appropriate accommodation to meet the needs of the young people (including mediation for home returns, where possible) are identified.  Halton YMCA Foyer received around 50% of these referrals.

 

From Halton YMCA’s experience, the main reasons why young people in Halton were finding themselves becoming homeless were:

 

·        Family relationship breakdown;

·        Alcohol and drug misuse;

·        Mental health issues such as, anxiety, depression, self harm etc. these are also often linked to the above issues; and

·        Financial problems and stress within the family unit.

 

These factors have remained the most common reasons for youth homelessness for the last 20 years.

 

The Board was advised that Halton YMCA agreed, following a number of meetings with Council officers and Councillors, to consult with the young homeless people living at Belvedere, YMCA, Orchard House and Halton Goals, to establish what concerns they have relating to the Council services offered to them as a homeless person, living in temporary accommodation and what improvements they would like to be made.

 

The Board was advised that a consultation meeting was organised at the YMCA at which over 20 young people attended.  At this meeting, the young people were very vocal and expressed the improvements in services they would like to see in Halton.  Also at the meeting, the young people nominated two representatives to sit on the Scrutiny Group, however due to the departure of Dave Williams, the group never met or functioned.  The only outcome from this exercise was that the young people organised a youth homeless conference in 2008.

 

From the consultation and Homeless Conference a number of issues were raised and suggestions made by those who participated, which they felt could have a positive impact on the quality of their lives if implemented.  These were as follows:

 

·        Public transport – need for free bus passes to attend college/leisure centres etc;

·        Dentists – difficulty in accessing a local dentist;

·        16 hour rule – being a barrier to college/training;

·        Training programmes not flexible enough to enable homeless young people with social problems to complete the statutory courses; and

·        Communication problems with JSA Claims / Crisis Loans leading to delayed income.

 

It was noted that Halton YMCA had continued to consult with our young people to establish from above, two or three key issues that they would like the Council to look at, which they believed would make a significant difference to them if they could be implemented in the near future.

 

The 2 key issues identified were barriers to training courses as it was felt that mainstream courses were not suitable for homeless young people, along with aspects of public transport. The latter was due to high costs and unreliable day and evening services. 

 

Arising from Members comments and questions the following was noted:

·        that the YMCA tailor made training in relation to confidence, self esteem etc to get people interested in studying again; 

·        that Riverside college ran a number of pre-entry short courses that could be helpful;

·        to refer the matter to the 14-19 Partnership for consideration in terms of appropriately tailored funding; and

·        these young people were core to the Borough’s NEET figures

 

            RESOLVED: That

 

(1)       the presentation be received;

 

(2)       a proposal for funding for costs of public transport be submitted to the 14-19 Partnership;

 

(3)       an update report be submitted to the June meeting of the Board;

 

(4)       Working Neighbourhood funding for relevant courses be explored.