Young people are being driven out of their homes and into tents because of changes in the benefits system, a homelessness charity has said.
Gloucestershire Nightstop set up a single tent on Cheltenham’s High Street as the symbol of the plight of homeless young people this weekend.
The charity, which gives shelter and helps young people find permanent homes, said recent changes to the benefits system meant families were pushing young people out of their homes because they could no longer afford to support them.
As Poverty & Homelessness Action Week comes to a close, members of Nightstop warned that some young people feel they have no other option than to live in a tent.
One solution they’ve come up with is to find families who will ‘host’ the young people – a form of fostering.
Sian Drewery, student social worker at Nightstop, said: “At the moment, we are finding many young people are sofa surfing and when they run out of sofas to surf, they are turning to using tents in people’s back gardens or in parks.
“They don’t know what to do.
“We are trying to step in before it gets that bad. We try and find them somewhere to stay, with normal families.
“We give them a warm meal at the Nightstop and work with them on things like budgeting and set them up for moving on.
“Sometimes it can be a relationship breakdown where a parent has to chose between their child or their partner.
“There are quite a lot of issues now that welfare reforms have come in.
“Parents are asking their eldest children to leave because they can’t afford to keep them any more.”
From the end of April last year the previous system of working-age benefits and Tax Credits were due to be gradually replaced by a new benefit called universal credit, affecting millions of claimants.
Nine young people are currently staying at Nightstop’s premises in Gloucester, which is the only emergency centre of its type for the whole of the county.
Claire Harrison, volunteer trustee, said: “Often these young people lose their job and they quickly find themselves on the streets.
“It’s not easy to find another job quickly.
“Sometimes they will move out and not have anywhere to come back to when things go wrong, because their parents are in more straightened circumstances.
“There is literally no room at home for some of these young adults.
“Most young people living on benefits can’t afford to live in private rented accommodation.
“It’s really catastrophic but we can step in.”
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