The Together Alliance aims to seek and take forward the collaborative solutions that can prevent and respond to youth homelessness. Its ‘Housing Solutions’ report has identified three projects for youth homelessness charities and housing associations to take forward together.
Together is an alliance of youth homelessness charities and housing associations working with young people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness in London. It brings together a unique partnership between the Housing Association Youth Network (Clarion Housing, Hyde Housing, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Network Homes, Peabody), the London Youth Gateway (New Horizon, akt, Depaul UK, Stonewall Housing), HACT and Safer London.
The Together Alliance commissioned research in order to understand how to make more effective use of the its collective assets (homes, support, funding and expertise) to create better pathways for supporting young people into stable accommodation, as well as preventing them from becoming homeless in the first place. Amidst growing numbers of young people sleeping rough during the pandemic and family relationships strained under lockdown, this task is even more urgent.
Based on the research, the ‘Housing Solutions for Young People Experiencing Homelessness in London’, written by Liz Zacharias at Campbell Tickell, the Together Alliance recommends three projects:
Project 1 – Someone to talk to: To prevent young people who are housing association tenants from becoming homeless by having processes and/or people in their organisations that can support their tenancy sustainment. This project will be led by the housing association members of the alliance.
Project 2 – Some support to pay: To support young people while they are experiencing homelessness, the Together Alliance wants to create a flexible funding pot of money that can be distributed directly and swiftly to assist with immediate needs. This project will be led by the youth homelessness charity members.
Project 3 – Somewhere to stay: o provide young people with a good next step once they leave emergency accommodation by making underused housing stock available to support young people who are experiencing homelessness. This will be a joint project.
We believe that these initiatives, decided together with young people, can make a significant contribution to supporting 18-25 year-olds who are being so adversely affected by Covid-19. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch: [email protected].
