'Extremely high' levels of referrals for youth homelessness in Scarborough
A charity is trying to tackle it
A charity says they are trying to tackle high numbers of youth homelessness in Scarborough.
SASH aims to prevent young people from sleeping rough or being out on the streets.
Laura Allen, Project Manager for North Yorkshire, said: "We're a very highly demanded service unfortunately. Referrals are extremely high and Scarborough is and always has been our most in-demand area, in terms of the number of referrals that we receive and the number of placements that people need.
"It's a very sad fact of life that youth homelessness is the way that it is at the moment. Mental health issues are prevalent and we're also in a cost of living crisis and sometimes families aren't always able to accommodate young adults as it's a drain on finances.
"There's probably a number of factors around coastal towns and areas like that but it's difficult to say why the situation is as it is, but for as long as I've been working at SASH, it's always just been a very busy area for us.
"We provide young people who are facing homelessness a room in the homes of our network of volunteer hosts, so they're ordinary people who have an open mind and heart and a non-judgemental attitude, and just want to offer up their spare room to a young person at a time of crisis.
"We offer two different types of accommodation; we do night stop which is short term emergency accommodation and then we offer supported lodging accomodation as well, so that's where the young person lives with the host on a sort of lodging-type basis and whilst they're there with them, they develop the skills that they need to move on into independent living."
SASH say they are looking for more volunteer hosts in Scarborough. You can find out more information on their website.