£10m BID TO STOP YOUTHS SLEEPING ROUGH
FIRST Minister Carwyn Jones has today announced an extra £10m will be spent in a bid to end youth homelessness in Wales by 2027. The Welsh Government had already announced £20m in their draft budget published in October.
In June Mr Jones made a commitment at the launch of the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign that the initiative would have his Government’s support.
The Welsh Government says it will work with partners, including local authorities, housing associations, homelessness agencies and the End Youth Homelessness Cymru Coalition, to help young people avoid crisis situations and support them into stable accommodation.
Speaking ahead of today’s announcement, the Welsh Labour leader said it was his own children who motivated him in his bid to end end youth homelessness, describing the issue as a “personal passion” for him.
He said: “I’m a dad. Because of my kids I want to make sure that other children have as much opportunity as possible. It’s a cliché that young people are the future but I absolutely believe that.
“If we’re going to call ourselves a civilised society we’ve got to make sure we have everything in place that we can do to help young people to realise their potential.
“That means, at the very least, being able to give them a place that they can call home and that stability.
“There are two things we need to do. “That is look at how we help those we are leaving care to not, metaphorically, fall off the edge of the cliff and find themselves without support.
“Secondly what’s been very clear to me every individual person has to have a tailored programme to help them. It’s not a case of one size fits all.
“We as a government don’t have the day-to-day expertise of organisations like Llamau.
“Our job is to provide the money to work with them to use their expertise in order then to get rid of youth homelessness.”
Mr Jones said there will be a review in five years to ensure that a midway target of reducing numbers by half has been met.
“After five years I think it’s perfectly possible for us to halve the rate of youth homelessness in Wales and then to get rid of it.
“The aim is to end youth homelessness across the whole country. Cardiff’s our biggest city but I’ve spoken to young people today who are not from Cardiff and they have their own stories to tell and they’ve had the help they need tailored to them.
“It’s given them confidence and enabled them to release their potential and given them a platform to build for the future.
“From our perspective we wanted to make sure Llamau got the resources they need in order to realise what personally I think is hugely important and that’s to get rid of youth homelessness.
“I was at the Salvation Army purple bus on Wednesday night and talking there with those who are older – again it became very clear to give somebody an opportunity so they’re no longer homeless you have to give them a tailored programme that’s unique to them because their needs are different.
“Some people find it very difficult to be in an environment where there are other people, in a hostel, and so they live on the streets.
“For others it’s the opposite and they want to get to go somewhere and want to get back to a situation where they’re not back on the streets.”
Mr Jones admitted 10 years was a long time but said he expected to see the target met by whoever is in power in a decade’s time.
“As far as I’m concerned my personal commitment is there. I’ve absolutely no doubt whoever comes after me will display that same level of commitment.
“In order to deal with youth homelessness we can’t just compartmentalise it and say that’s the job of one minister.
“It’s a whole-Government responsibility. That’s why, as First Minister, I wanted to drive this personally”.
Frances Beecher, CEO of Llamau, said: “We believe that we have a wonderful opportunity in Wales to deliver real change. Estimates show that every year over 7,000 young people ask for help with homelessness but we know that many more young people don’t know where to turn or who to ask for help when they become homeless.
“Today’s announcement shows the Welsh Government’s commitment to tackling this issue and we look forward to working closely with them to ensure that young people who are at risk of becoming homeless are supported as soon as they need it and to ensure that youth homelessness is a thing of the past.”