§ Mr. CummingsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what statistics he has concerning homeless people in the Easington district council area who are aged(a) 16 and 17 years, (b) 18 to 20 years and (c) over 20 years.
§ Mr. YeoLocal authorities report the number of households for whom they accept responsibility to secure permanent accommodation under the homelessness provisions of the 1985 Housing Act. The quarterly P1(E) returns identify such households by the category of need but not by age. The total number of households accepted by Easington district council under these provisions in the third quarter of 1991 was 25.
In the second quarter of this year the return was revised to identify for the first time:
- (i) households in priority need who were accepted as homeless because the household contained vulnerable young person(s) (aged 16 and over) and;
- (ii) young single homeless people who were not in priority need for whom the authority nevertheless agreed to secure permanent accommodation.
Since then, Easington district council has reported accepting only one such household, in the first of these two categories in the second quarter of 1991.