§ Mr. CummingsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the numbers of young, single homeless people in(a) the district council areas of (i) Easington, (ii) Durham City, (iii) Chester le-Street, (iv) Derwentside, (v) Wear Valley and (b) the boroughs of (i) Sedgefield, (ii) Darlington, (iii) Sunderland and (iv) Hartlepool. [89834]
§ Mr. RaynsfordNone, but we are working up a methodology to allow local authorities to produce such estimates. There are real problems in attempting to measure the scale of youth homelessness, either nationally or locally. Few estimates of single homelessness break figures down by age. The term 'homeless' may also be used to represent a number of different levels of housing need. At one extreme, rough sleeping is the most visible and disturbing form of homelessness. But there are also young people accommodated in emergency night shelters, direct-access hostels, squats, bed-and-breakfast accommodation and longer-term hostels. Some people, especially the young will stay with friends and relatives on a temporary basis, sometimes under difficult and trying circumstances. Although there have been a number of estimates commissioned by the voluntary sector to assess the extent of youth homelessness they have not been able to overcome these inherent difficulties and have come up with widely differing estimates.
531WMy Department has recently commissioned research into youth homelessness as part of the Youth Homelessness Action Partnership. One output from this research will provide a more reliable estimate of the numbers of young people affected by various types of homelessness. A tool-kit will also be produced which will be made available to local authorities and the voluntary sector to help them produce accurate figures locally.