Life after care: 'I have a fear of owning too much stuff in case I have to move'

More than 4,000 young attraction leavers successful England were facing homelessness by April 2024, authorities information shows - a leap of 54% successful 5 years.

The summation successful the figure, which covers 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, is 15 times greater than the emergence successful homelessness among each young radical successful England.

Care foundation Become described the precocious fig of young attraction leavers facing homelessness arsenic a "failure of society".

The authorities called the figures "shocking" and said it was taking steps to "reverse the worst lodging situation successful surviving history".

Zoe was 16 erstwhile she entered the attraction system. Now 21, she told the BBC that she was moved 5 times portion successful care.

"I person this fearfulness of owning excessively overmuch worldly successful lawsuit I request to determination and adjacent if that's nary longer a worry, I inactive ever person to person these wide outs and marque definite that my worldly fits successful a definite magnitude of boxes," she said.

Originally from Cambridgeshire, Zoe has moved betwixt hospitals, a children's location successful Gloucestershire and an eating upset portion successful Glasgow.

"I’ve spent 5 antithetic Christmases successful antithetic locations successful the past 5 years and it's rather unsettling," she said.

Zoe does not person her ain location and is surviving successful supported accommodation successful Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, portion waiting for suitable societal housing.

She said: "I deliberation radical request to realise that we don't conscionable crook 18 and past we're conscionable this big who knows everything.

"People request to realise that really we've been deprived from attraction and emotion and that is thing we inactive request arsenic adults."

New figures from the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DCLG) amusement the fig of 18 to 20-year-old attraction leavers successful England facing homelessness has risen by 54% from 2,790 successful 2018-19, to 4,300 successful 2023-24.

This summation was 15 times higher than each young radical aged 18 to 24, which roseate by 3.5% from 54,850 to 56,740 implicit the aforesaid period.

The fig of households facing homelessness successful the wide colonisation has risen by 21% since 2019, from 269,510 to 324,990.

The information lone tracks those assessed arsenic stateless oregon threatened with homelessness by their section authority, and truthful person received a alleviation oregon prevention duty.

The authorities promised last week to region the section transportation trial for attraction leavers.

The rules, utilized by councils to determine who tin suffice for societal housing, necessitate idiosyncratic to person a nexus to the area, for illustration due to the fact that they person lived determination recently, enactment determination oregon person adjacent household nearby.

Children successful the attraction strategy are often forced to permission their section area, either for their ain information oregon to entree support, truthful the section trial tin penalise them if they necessitate lodging aft leaving care.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, the main enforcement of Become, said that it was "a existent nonaccomplishment of society" for susceptible children and young radical – galore of whom person "experienced maltreatment oregon neglect successful the household home" and been done a "huge magnitude of trauma" – to beryllium facing homelessness.

"We besides request to look astatine however we amended enactment this radical of young radical and portion of that is astir ending the attraction cliff, truthful that young radical don't person to permission attraction abruptly erstwhile they crook 18."

Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali said the figures showed "the devastating interaction homelessness has connected peoples' lives".

“We are reversing the worst lodging situation successful surviving past by gathering 1.5 cardinal caller homes and are changing the instrumentality to abolish Section 21 nary responsibility evictions – instantly tackling 1 of the starring causes of homelessness.

"In addition, we’ve announced a caller dedicated transverse authorities group, tasked with creating a semipermanent strategy to extremity the disgraceful levels of homelessness.”