This week, we welcomed Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to our pioneering service Hotel 1824 in northwest London, to see first-hand the impact youth-specific, pan-London emergency accommodation can have.
Set up during the pandemic with our partners New Horizons and the Cardinal Hume Centre, H1824 provides accommodation and support for young people who would otherwise be sleeping rough on the streets. Since opening in March, the hub has helped 136 young people, with 77 moving on from the service into more permanent accommodation.
Sadiq Khan met with the young people staying at H1824 to hear their stories such as Jadea, who was sleeping rough for two months prior to moving in. She explained; “The staff are really understanding and they care a lot. Having a place focused solely on young people it’s not as intimidating or scary as most other places. I wish there were more places like this around London.”
The visit marked the launch of the Mayor’s Winter Rough Sleeping Fundraising Campaign, supporting four youth homelessness charities across London, including Depaul UK. It comes as statistics predict that over 29,000, 18-34 year olds face being homeless this year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-59473490
As our CEO, Mike Thiedke said: “Every day, more young people become homeless in London and unfortunately we’re seeing an increasing number of them ending up on our streets. We are facing a crisis of youth homelessness and are thankful to the Mayor for recognising the particular needs of young people and choosing them as the focus for his winter campaign.”
Hotel 1824 provides a model for how together, we can change this. We look forward to continuing to work with the Mayor to do so.
