Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to improve supported accommodation for homeless young people in (a) Easington constituency, (b) County Durham, (c) the North East and (d) England.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government is committed to preventing youth homelessness and we are taking specific action across England to support young homeless people into stable accommodation, education training or employment.

We have invested £14 million to enable Crisis to support 10,000 vulnerable single people into privately rented tenancies, of which 41 projects are specifically targeted at young people.

Our £15 million Fair Chance Fund payment by results scheme is supporting 1,600 vulnerable homeless 18-25 year olds into accommodation, education training and employment. Projects for the scheme are being delivered across the country including North East areas such as Newcastle, Northumberland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Durham and Sunderland.

In addition, the Government is investing £40 million in Platform for Life, a lower rent shared accommodation programme to provide young homeless people a stable base for work and study. We have also implemented the ‘Youth Accommodation Pathway’, good practice model that supports young people to remain in the family home where it is safe to do so and offers tailored support for those who cannot. This has been disseminated across all English local authorities.