EVERY young person who needs housing help is assessed - York council

The assurance comes after data from national homelessness charity Centrepoint and WPI Economics suggested that, of the 421 young people aged 16-24 who presented themselves as homeless to the city council in 2022-23, more than half – 221 out of 421 - were not screened.

But Denis Southall, York council’s head of housing, insisted: “Everyone who comes to us worried about their housing situation is assessed.”

Mr Southall said the authority had begun to use a new recording system in 2022.

“(This) unfortunately recorded cases incorrectly and affected the figures,” Mr Southall said. “This has now been rectified.”

Mr Southall said that while everyone who came to the authority for help with their housing was assessed, the level of support they were entitled to depended on their circumstances.

“Every 16-17 year old coming to us for help is assessed by both our children’s services and our housing teams,” he said.

“All those who we confirm are facing homelessness are given preventative support in the first instance; if they are confirmed to be homeless we provide appropriate accommodation; and we give everyone else advice and help.

“Anyone aged 18 or over is assessed by our housing team and again, depending on their eligibility, we try to prevent them becoming homeless or give them appropriate accommodation, or provide advice and help.”

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The Centrepoint data suggested that the city council would need ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds in extra funding’ to help every young person in the city facing homelessness.

Based on the figure of 221 young people the charity says were not screened in 2022-23, it estimates City of York Council would need a further £436,000 to cover the costs associated with assessment and support.

Given that York admits cases were recorded incorrectly for a period after the introduction of the new recording system in 2022, it is unclear how accurate this figure is.

But Mr Southall said: “More funding to help us prevent homelessness and to support people who are, is always welcome.”

The city council is still in the process of putting together a new homelessness strategy, after it was last year told it would be getting an extra £260,000 of government funding over two years to tackle homelessness.

Last September, the authority decided not to renew a £95,000-a year funding contract for the Salvation Army’s early intervention rough sleepers programme, saying it planned to use the extra government funding to expand its own rough sleeping programme instead.

The Salvation Army's Charlie Malarkey making an early-morning check on York's rough sleepers last year (Image: Stephen Lewis)

The Salvation Army, which had a team on the streets at 5am five days a week to check on rough sleepers, continued to provide the programme without council funding.

An internal city council report looking into the way the Salvation Army contract was ended which was due to be considered by a council committee in February was pulled at the last minute after concerns over accuracy.

The Press understands it is in the process of being rewritten.