Every year around 12,000 young people leave foster care or residential care homes. These young people often struggle to find a place to live and are at particular risk of homelessness. Without access to good quality accommodation young people face barriers to entering the labour market, participating in education, and accessing financial and health services.
As currently drafted the Renters’ Rights Bill provides no additional protection for young people who have recently left foster care or residential children’s homes. We believe the Bill should be amended to ensure care leavers seeking to rent in the private sector can get the help they need.
Read more about our recommendations in our briefing.
It is estimated that one in three care leavers become homeless in the first two years immediately after they leave care (Crisis, 2017). We therefore welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment in his speech to the 2024 Labour party conference that young care leavers “Will have the security they deserve. They will have a roof over their heads.”
Renting in the private sector can be challenging for this group. Evidence from a survey of care leavers by the Charity Centrepoint found that one in 10 (13%) of care leavers had been unable to access accommodation because landlords were unwilling to accommodate them (Centrepoint, 2017). In the same survey 40% of young people reported that not having enough savings for a deposit had been a problem.
Without access to good quality accommodation young people face barriers to entering the labour market, participating in education, and accessing financial and health services.
As currently drafted the Renters’ Rights Bill provides no additional protection for this group. The Bill should be amended to provide specific support for care leavers seeking to rent in the private sector including:
- Adding care leavers to the groups that are specifically protected from discrimination by landlords in Chapter Three.
- Promote the greater availability of rent deposit and guarantor schemes provided by local authorities for care leavers.
I have found the cost of accommodation challenging. It was mainly my background because I came from a broken unorganised background not a lot of places would take me and those that would had a long waiting list.
Care leaver supported by Barnardo’s
Let's make it easier for young people leaving care to find a place to call home
Young people leaving care often face discrimination from landlords and, when someone is willing to rent to them, have difficulties because they don’t have a parent who can lend them a deposit or act as a guarantor. Right now there is an opportunity to help fix this situation.
The case for a national rent guarantor and deposit scheme for care leavers
Our report asks local authorities in England to run a rent guarantor and deposit scheme to help care leavers aged 18-24. This report sets out the case for introducing a requirement which would help care leavers access a greater range of properties in the private rented sector.
What's it like when you leave the care system?
Read more about the experiences of young people leaving care in our report written in partnership with IKEA. This report also includes a number of recommendations to ensure every care leaver has a safe and secure home,