Calls for homes for people who have been in care

Torbay wants landlords to help

Landlords should be encouraged to provide properties for young people who have been in care to help combat a “broken” housing system,  a Torbay Council committee has concluded.

The children and young people’s overview and scrutiny board said it would support an appeal to landlords for accommodation for what they call ‘care-experienced’ young people, as the council did in August to provide housing for Afghan refugees.

A recent report by Devon Home Choice, which organises applications for council and housing association homes, found that more than 1,400 households are in housing need in Torbay.

Devon Home Choice is thought to house around 200 people a year in Torbay, meaning it would take seven years to meet current housing needs – and that’s likely to get worse as housing need continues to increase.

Councillor Cordelia Law (Liberal Democrats, Tormohun) council member for children’s services, said the housing crisis in the Bay was especially bad for young people and care-experienced young people in particular.

She said a stable home is essential to the mental and emotional wellbeing of young people: “You need that permanence in your life. It’s hard to plan when you’re not on solid ground. If you’re stood on quicksand you can’t make your way forward.”

Criticising Devon Home Choice, she said: “This is a system that is broken. This is where we need to be directing our attention: how can we, as a local authority, affect that, change it in some way. These are our providers and they’re letting our people down.

“I feel that without us shouting about it, our young people will become bottom of the pile…All councillors should know how desperate we are for housing for our young people.”

Council officer Becky Thompson, head of regulated services and corporate parenting, told the committee: “It’s vitally important that we have some safe and sustainable options for our care-experienced young people so that they have that sense of permanence.” She said such people often have had a lot of instability in the lives to do with where they live, which creates additional strain on their mental and emotional health.

The council currently provides housing assistance to 170 young adults who have been in care, 137 of which are aged 18 to 21, 33 aged are between 22 and 25.

The council supports them to find housing until the age of 25 by which it hopes to have found them permanent accommodation. However, Cllr Law said this age was increasingly becoming a “cliff edge” for them as they find they can’t access the same housing support from the council despite not having a stable place to live.

The board unanimously agreed that Torbay Council should appeal to private landlords who may have properties available for young people who have at some point been in care, and that providing accommodation for them should be a priority for the council’s housing company, TorVista.

It was also agreed that the issue should be highlighted at Torbay Council’s housing crisis review, a new committee that discusses housing issues facing the Bay.

At the meeting, Councillor Nick Bye (Conservative, Wellswood), scrutiny lead for children’s services, asked why the council isn’t buying property to let to ‘care-experienced’ young people, saying: “Can’t we show a bit of leadership here?”

Cllr Law said she agreed but that it was difficult to find appropriately priced properties for the council to buy. She said: “I think it’s not about there lacking a political will. I think it’s there being a lack of physical buildings and properties available.”

She asked Cllr Bye to forward any appropriate properties he came across: “We will look into it and we will take it on board.”