Youth Homelessness

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 3 March 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:18, 3 March 2020

Can I thank the Member for that supplementary question and for the way in which, over so many years, he has championed the cause of young people in distress in so many aspects of their lives? And seeing his announcement last week—his contribution on these matters will be missed in this Senedd in the future. 

I want to agree with what he has said, of course. Taff Housing Association is in my own constituency of Cardiff West, and my office is not many hundreds of yards away from theirs, so we have a very good opportunity there to hear of the work that they do in bringing together the physical response to youth homelessness with the care and support needs that young people who find themselves in that awful position often need as well. And the scheme to which he refers is a very good example of that, making sure that young people have a decent place to live, but that they don't feel abandoned in it, and that they know that they will not be isolated and alone, but that they will have a network of organisations that they can turn to so that the difficult business of looking after yourself and being in charge of your own destiny—. Most of us are never on our own; we have families and others we can turn to, and we know that young people who find themselves homeless often don't have any of that. So, putting those things in place through the Salvation Army, the Church Army and the things that Taff Housing Association can do fills the whole of that gap. I commend, as he did, the work that they do. The point he made towards the end of his question about that principle of no eviction into homelessness is an absolutely central one that I know my colleague Julie James, as the Minister for housing, is emphasising in all the discussions that she has with social housing providers in Wales.