5 minutes | Wednesday, 5 December 2018
18,000 young people aged 16 – 25 will be homeless or at risk of homelessness this Christmas according to the latest figures from the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint.
To highlight the issue, the charity dubbed last Friday (30 November) as ‘Bleak Friday’ – marking the start of the festive countdown, where for the next 24 days, many vulnerable young homeless people will face some of the loneliest and bleakest challenges; from risking their safety by sleeping on strangers’ sofas, to dealing with anxiety and depression at the prospect of having no one to turn to.
Centrepoint carried out a survey to look into this issue and found that 40% of those who took part have seen an increase in the number of young people (aged 16–25) sleeping rough in the past few years.
To tell us more about the 'Bleak Friday' campaign and what life is like for the many young homeless on our streets we were joined by Abdul, who found himself sleeping rough at the age of 15, and Abi Gill, Centrepoint’s Policy and Research Manager.