Jeremy Corbyn praises homeless helpline appeal to support young 'engineers, doctors and nurses of tomorrow'

Matt Watts16 December 2016

Jeremy Corbyn today backed the Young & Homeless Helpline as he said young rough sleepers in London could be the “brilliant engineers, doctors and nurses of tomorrow”.

The Labour leader gave his support to our Christmas appeal, saying it would help to transform the lives of rising numbers of “desperate” people struggling with homelessness.

The Standard is raising money to help charity Centrepoint launch the first national helpline for young people aged 16 to 25 on the cusp of homelessness or already sleeping rough.

It will fill gaps in support for more than 150,000 youths facing nights on the streets who ask their local authority for housing help each year. A third are turned away with little or no aid.

Centrepoint visit: The Labour leader helped with a cookery class
JEREMY SELWYN

Mr Corbyn said: “The helpline is a very good idea because many young people end up homeless for a very complicated variety of problems.

“These are often a mixture of health, education or family problems and sometimes they either don’t know where to go or they are adjudged by a local authority to be intentionally homeless and they are simply stuck.

“As a London MP I do get young people turning up at the constituency office in this situation.

Cookery class: Corbyn, a vegetarian, helped make chickpea burgers
JEREMY SELWYN

“Sometimes they are totally desperate. They don’t know where to turn or where to go. This phoneline will be very, very useful — a very good idea.”

The Islington North MP spoke during a visit with shadow housing minister John Healey to a Centrepoint hostel in Camberwell to see the work the charity does.

Mr Corby, who revealed he meets and counsels young people he sees sleeping rough in parks or doorways in his constituency, urged people to support the helpline.

“It’s a crying waste when young people are homeless and therefore getting into bad health — therefore not achieving an education,” he said.

“We all lose. How many brilliant engineers of tomorrow are sleeping on the streets and haven’t got a chance? How many doctors, how many nurses?

“It’s such a waste of human resources. We must value everybody.”

Centrepoint visit: The Labour leader met residents and volunteers
JEREMY SELWYN

But he warned that charities could not solve the issue alone and said the Government needed to step in.

Mr Corbyn highlighted the “social cleansing” of central London through reduced social housing as an issue.

He said young people in the capital were among those hardest hit by what he described as the “de-housing of those in social need”.

Christmas packs: Mr Corbyn inspected packs of cosmetics to be sent out to female residents
JEREMY SELWYN

Condemning a growing shortage of affordable housing in the capital, Mr Corbyn said: “In London there is always a competition between expensive commercial development and the need for the provision of good quality social housing, but it seems to me more imbalanced than ever now.

“We are seeing, therefore, a de-housing of those in social need in central London.

"We are seeing social cleansing of central London, because our local authorities are not equipped with the funds and powers to deal with the housing needs of their communities.”

The Government states that it has invested £500million to tackle homelessness and that homelessness among 16 to 24-year-olds has fallen by 17 per cent since 2010.

Charities dispute the homelessness figures.

Earlier Mr Corbyn, a vegetarian, had helped a group of current and former Centrepoint residents cook chickpea burgers during one of the charity’s healthy living classes - aimed at teaching them life skills to help independent living.

He also spoke with staff helping pack Christmas presents of donated cosmetics to be sent nationwide to more than 2,000 young women staying in Centrepoint accommodation.

The Evening Standard's Homeless Helpline appeal is raising money for the Centrepoint Helpline, a brand new support service that will save young people from ending up on the streets.

To donate please visit our Just Giving page.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in