The fourth webinar of the #BBBYouthWelfare series took place on Tuesday 8th December. It focused on how young people’s housing arrangements have been impacted by the pandemic and what we can do about it. Chaired by Liz Dunn (Safeguarding Learning Project Development Officer at Leicester at Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children Partnership) and Coordinated by Dr Ana Oprea from DMU. The speakers:
Jo Richardson (Professor of Housing & Social Inclusion at De Montfort University)
Mark Grant (CEO at Action Homeless)
Nikki Chawda (Director of Housing at EMH Homes)
Cllr Elly Cutkelvin (Assistant City Mayor Education and Housing of Leicester City).
Highlighted the simple and obvious facts that
If we want to tackle homelessness we need more affordable social housing and support for those who will live there.
Professor Jo Richardson
There was consensus that younger people are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Certain groups such as care experienced over represented and work needed to be developed across agencies to prevent young people becoming homeless. On the positive side Leicester has been innovative and has worked with business community to coordinate support. All agreed we need to build on the existing bedrock of good practice and ensure young people’s lived experience and voices shaped future provision. Key to this was an affordable housing offer.
I came away from the webinar more convinced than ever, that we know the issues and the answers. As, we have seen during pandemic, when we want to, we can act quickly, mobilise resources and achieve positive outcomes. We need to bring that sense of shared purpose, creativity and agility to tackling youth homelessness.
Kieran Breen, CEO Leicestershire Cares
These webinars are a partnership between Leicestershire Cares, DMU and LLR safeguarding board. The next webinar will be on the 3rd February 2021, 1-2pm (online) we will be discussing county lines – how criminal gangs target and exploit young people, what the national picture is, the actions being taken locally to tackle and prevent and how we can #BuildBackBetter as we transition out of lockdown.
More info on Homelessness and speakers/agencies
https://www.oxford.gov.uk/homelessness
https://actionhomeless.org.uk/
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/academic-staff/business-and-law/jo-richardson/jo-richardson.aspx
To register for county lines event, please click link below.