Society says thanks a million for end youth homeless support and calls for government action

Yorkshire Building Society has said thanks a million to its colleagues, customers and communities across the UK for helping to raise £1million for its End Youth Homelessness (EYH) partnership.

The Society has raised more than £1,085,000 for EYH in the three and a half year partnership that has helped 455 young people and 95 dependent children into their own rented homes to date.

It is also calling on the Government to completely eliminate youth homelessness within the next decade.

EYH is a national movement of local charities working together to end youth homelessness in the UK. An estimated 110,000 young people in the UK were homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2018/19.*

Mike Regnier, CEO of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “I want to thank everyone that has supported our partnership with End Youth Homelessness. This has enabled us to help hundreds of homeless young people move into their own homes and provide them with the support they need to rebuild their future. Through our partnership, we’ve helped young people to overcome some of the enormous financial barriers to living independently like rental deposits, their first month’s rent, or household essentials and furniture.

“We will continue to support EYH, and have committed a year’s funding from the Society to run the End Youth Homelessness Housing Fund through to 2021, but we know more must be done.

“We are asking the Government to establish a long term expert led task force to look into eliminating youth homelessness within the next decade working with EYH as the experts in their field. We need to look at the barriers homeless young people face, such as setting achievable targets for building more social housing stock, increased funding for youth homelessness services and an urgent review into housing benefit rates for the under 25s to allow them access to private rental homes.” 

By funding the Rent Deposit Scheme the partnership gave practical help to homeless young people (aged 16 to 25) across the UK that were ready to live independently.

The money has been raised through activities such as colleague fundraising, public donations, innovative savings accounts and donations from Yorkshire Building Society.

EYH charities collectively work with over 30,000 young people who are amongst the most deprived in the country.

Nicholas Connolly, Managing Director for End Youth Homelessness, said: “The partnership between Yorkshire Building Society and End Youth Homelessness was about housing homeless young people, plain and simple. We have created a brilliant service that really works for homeless young people and a blue print for scaling other great local services.

“We are incredibly proud of this partnership and its legacy is hardwired into our future with the End Youth Homelessness Housing Fund, which builds on the partnership’s Rent Deposit Scheme. The hugely successful fundraising by Yorkshire Building Society will fund its first year of operation. We want to say a huge thank you to colleagues and customers at the Society for their support, which has helped change the lives of homeless young people.”