North Wales Regional Committee NWRC(2) 06-06 (p3) Date & Time: - PDF document

North Wales Regional Committee NWRC(2) 06-06 (p3) Date & Time: 17 November 2006 Venue: Civic Hall, Connah’s Quay Town Council Title: Cymdeithas Tai Hafan: Presentation on Youth Homelessness Introduction to Tai Hafan Tai Hafan is a charitable housing association covering the whole of Wales. We have been providing support and housing to vulnerable women and their children, in particular those who are experiencing domestic abuse, for over 17 years. We work in close partnership with local authorities and other agencies to ensure that disadvantaged single parent families and single women of all ages are enable to meet their needs and move on into leading independent lives in the wider community. Tai Hafan believes that women and children have the right to expect to be treated fairly and in a non-abusive manner, to have safe, decent homes and to be allowed to develop to their full potential. Tai Hafan delivers its services in a holistic way in order to ensure this. Tai Hafan’s Young Women’s’ Projects Tai Hafan provides housing and support specifically for young women through its Young Women’s Projects, three of which are in North Wales. These are located in Old Colwyn, Rhyl and Wrexham. The projects offer temporary supported housing for vulnerable young women aged 16 – 25 and floating support i.e. support in their own homes. This can also include young women who are pregnant or who have a child up to the age of one year. Many of the young women whom we house and/or support are very vulnerable, often having been sexually abused or having mental ill health which manifests itself in eating disorders or self-harming. The appropriateness of providing a single sex environment for these very vulnerable young women is well documented in research around the needs of those experiencing abuse in the home. The properties are furnished and the basic essentials (e.g. crockery, pans, hoover, and iron) are provided. As the aim is to provide an environment which assists the young women to move towards independence, 24 hour support is not provided but staff sleepovers are carried out in some projects and there is a 24-hour on call scheme available to all service users. The Project Support Staff work with the young women to build towards a positive future, living independently in the community, by the promotion of education, training and social networks, plus the development of parenting skills, personal interests and leisure activities. Service users can access Tai Hafan’s in-house learning programme, New Dawn, which helps them gain accredited learning and thus progress on to more formal learning or to gain employment. The young women all have a support package based on their needs, which is individually negotiated between service user and support staff. In addition to the static provision, floating support is provided to those unable to gain access to the housing project. Support is given to these individual young women on the same basis as in the housing projects, and we support young women in a variety of housing situations, including working to provide pre-tenancy support to those waiting to move

into accommodation, whether permanent or temporary. In the past 12 months we have had 132 referrals to our 3 projects in North Wales but we have only been able to support 27 young women. The demand for supported accommodation for vulnerable homeless young women is not seasonal but constant – this is demonstrated by the high numbers of referrals for our services plus the waiting lists. Tai Hafan also has a project in Denbighshire working with private sector landlords to encourage them to provide housing for vulnerable young women in need of support. This project is funded by Denbighshire County Council and aims to assist in providing much-needed move on from temporary supported housing and also to provide tenancies for those previously unable to gain a private sector tenancy by providing the liaison between the young person and the landlord and advocating on their behalf. This project has been developed as a result of the increasing lack of social rented housing and the subsequent increase in homelessness for young people and to address the issues of move-on from temporary supported housing projects – again much affected in recent years by the lack of investment in the social rented sector. During the past 2 years, Tai Hafan has developed a Mediation Service in south and west Wales which has as one of its aims the prevention of youth homelessness by using mediation to assist in rebuilding the relationship between parents and young people. It is our hope that we can find the funding to expand this to the north Wales area in the next 12 months as we believe this preventative tool is one of the keys to helping reduce youth homelessness. Reasons for Referral to Young Women’s Projects Family conflicts and relationship breakdown are the predominant causes of initial homelessness. It may be the case that the family conflict was some time ago and thus the young woman was ‘looked after’ by the local authority, or it can be that the young woman is leaving the family home at sixteen. There are a multitude of reasons for the breakdown of the family and homelessness is very often linked to other aspects of social disadvantage; however the circumstances are unique to each individual and this is reflected in the support package that is linked to their tenancy with Tai Hafan. However, many of the young women referred to Tai Hafan are not only homeless but also have complex and multiple needs, as can be seen by the attached graph:

Specific Issues Contributing to Youth Homelessness For Tai Hafan there are two main reasons for the increase in homelessness amongst young people – lack of accommodation and lack of skills: Lack of accommodation As indicated above, there is an increasing dearth of rented housing available to young people. This has been occasioned by a number of factors: ● Lack of investment in the social rented sector ● Right to buy – so less local authority and housing association property available ● Higher individual expectations leading to young people turning down poor quality accommodation. ● Private landlords reluctant to take on tenants they perceive as ‘trouble’ ● Private rents are often too high for those on low incomes to afford ● Issues around Housing Benefit and delays in payment ● Rising house prices means that many young people are now unable to become home owners which again increases the numbers seeking rented housing. As a result of the lack of social rented housing, there are increased difficulties with moving young people on from temporary supported housing projects which create blockages and thus fewer young homeless people can be helped. A vicious circle is therefore created. In addition, the decreasing supply of affordable accommodation is made worse by family breakdown contributing to the household growth rate. Increasingly in North Wales, economic activity and low unemployment attracts migrant labour and this in turn impacts on the more accessible forms of accommodation, especially in the private rented sector. This is increased in university towns with the student population. Although the lack of rented accommodation or move on accommodation for young homeless people or young clients of supported housing is a year round issue, this is aggravated in the summer in the north Wales coastal towns, where Tai Hafan has its projects, by the in-migration of holidaymakers and the phenomenon of summer lets. Thus during the summer season the available stock is reduced even further. Lack of skills When a young woman is forced to leave the family home because of family or relationship breakdown, she is forced into living independently but has not had the opportunity to learn the necessary skills to do so. This, coupled with the vulnerability of very young women, can lead to repeated tenancy breakdown caused by a build up of rent arrears or neighbour disputes caused by the behaviour of the young person herself or of her visitors. Having their own home makes an independent life possible for these young people but if they do not have the skills to maintain it, the tenancy will fail, leading to homelessness, low self esteem and other concerns. Many young homeless people, in particular those who have been ‘looked after’ by the local authority, are disenfranchised from education, with no or poor qualifications. The lack of education and knowledge about housing and other issues e.g. how to manage your finances, can lead people to make mistakes. In particular, young people often lack the skill to deal with the behaviour of their friends who can cause nuisance to themselves, other tenants and