A charity is encouraging people with spare bedrooms to provide shelter for homeless young people.

Centrepoint hopes residents in Waltham Forest will make the space available for young people in need after claiming more than 180 16-24 year olds were listed as homeless and in need of support in the borough in 2011/12.

Sky Aimez-moi, 17, currently staying at a Centrepoint hostel, has helped design the scheme. He said: “Young people need options, it helps empower them. If I’d had the choice of staying in supported lodgings I’d have probably gone for it. Living in a home was something I was used to.

 

Each young person needs different support. Being around just a few people could help a young person focus so living with hosts might be the best environment to help them grow.”  

The charity is calling for people to provide a safe, friendly environment where a vulnerable young person can learn life skills vital to independent living, such as cooking and cleaning, normally passed on by a family member.    

Under the scheme hosts will be trained to foster-care standard, but will not be expected to provide the same level of support.

After being matched with a homeless young person aged 16-25, placements will last for between three months and two years.

In that time, as well as support from Centrepoint, the host will receive £50 weekly to cover household costs and local housing allowance for a single room in their area. 

Seyi Obakin, Centrepoint chief executive, said: “Joining Centrepoint’s supporting lodgings scheme will provide a homeless young person with more than just a safe place to stay.

“The sense of security from knowing you have a family behind you is something many of us take for granted, but it’s a luxury the 80,000 young people affected by homelessness each year in the UK just don’t have.”