Use student accommodation to house local young people at risk of homelessness
The Issue
Dear Portsmouth City Council, University of Portsmouth and Unite Students,
We the undersigned call on you to investigate the possibility of using a small proportion of the rooms in new student halls to house local young people at risk of homelessness.
More info:
We are in the midst of a housing crisis; rising rents, stagnant wages and cuts to benefits mean that more and more people are struggling just to keep a roof over their head. Add into the mix savage cuts to homelessness services, as well as mental health and addiction support, and it is no surprise that the number of people sleeping rough in Portsmouth has trebled in the last 5 years.
The effects of this crisis are being felt particularly sharply by young people. The Zero Hour contract generation are increasingly struggling to get by and growing numbers of them are turning to their local authority for support. Those who can convince Housing Officers that they are unintentionally homeless may be offered the opportunity to join the waiting list for a room in a young persons’ hostel.
One of the biggest difficulties staff in these hostels face is the task of supporting the young person to secure appropriate “move-on” accommodation. Despite being officially homeless many of the young people living in hostels do not meet the ever stricter criteria for joining the social housing waiting list. The chances of them finding a private landlord willing to take on a young tenant with no guarantor are slim at best.
Unite Students is a private accommodation provider which currently houses over 1,300 University of Portsmouth students every year. In addition, they are in the process of constructing a new building on Greetham Street and have recently announced their intention to build another on the site of Chaucer House. When the new halls are completed this will mean Unite Students accommodating over 2,600 University of Portsmouth students every year. This is likely to produce yearly revenue in excess of £12million from their Portsmouth business alone.
We are calling on Unite Students, University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council to investigate the possibility of using a small proportion of the rooms in new student halls to house local young people at risk of homelessness.
The Issue
Dear Portsmouth City Council, University of Portsmouth and Unite Students,
We the undersigned call on you to investigate the possibility of using a small proportion of the rooms in new student halls to house local young people at risk of homelessness.
More info:
We are in the midst of a housing crisis; rising rents, stagnant wages and cuts to benefits mean that more and more people are struggling just to keep a roof over their head. Add into the mix savage cuts to homelessness services, as well as mental health and addiction support, and it is no surprise that the number of people sleeping rough in Portsmouth has trebled in the last 5 years.
The effects of this crisis are being felt particularly sharply by young people. The Zero Hour contract generation are increasingly struggling to get by and growing numbers of them are turning to their local authority for support. Those who can convince Housing Officers that they are unintentionally homeless may be offered the opportunity to join the waiting list for a room in a young persons’ hostel.
One of the biggest difficulties staff in these hostels face is the task of supporting the young person to secure appropriate “move-on” accommodation. Despite being officially homeless many of the young people living in hostels do not meet the ever stricter criteria for joining the social housing waiting list. The chances of them finding a private landlord willing to take on a young tenant with no guarantor are slim at best.
Unite Students is a private accommodation provider which currently houses over 1,300 University of Portsmouth students every year. In addition, they are in the process of constructing a new building on Greetham Street and have recently announced their intention to build another on the site of Chaucer House. When the new halls are completed this will mean Unite Students accommodating over 2,600 University of Portsmouth students every year. This is likely to produce yearly revenue in excess of £12million from their Portsmouth business alone.
We are calling on Unite Students, University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council to investigate the possibility of using a small proportion of the rooms in new student halls to house local young people at risk of homelessness.
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Petition created on 31 May 2016