Plea for government to make good its promise to help reduce homelessness among care leavers

A group of care-experienced young people from the East Midlands have been to Downing Street to urge the government to take action now to guarantee them a place to live.

In September the Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he would be exempting care leavers, along with veterans and domestic violence survivors, from the 'local connection' test which is used in many areas, when deciding if someone is eligible for social housing.

But when it will happen is not clear and Daveena Patel who's studying at De Montfort University in Leicester and Tayahnay Nolan, originally from Nottingham, say the rules need to be changed immediately to remove the threat of homelessness.

Daveena, who is in her third year of Education Studies and wants to work with young people, currently feels settled. After being in the care system elsewhere in the country, it's been a relief to find a place she can call home.

But with no family support she is worried about where she will live after she graduates. She fears to guarantee accommodation she may have to move 50 miles away back to where she lived before.

It's a place where she has no support network and which has constant reminders of her earlier life.

"I've moved around so many times. I was wondering if anywhere would ever feel like home. But Leicester does.

"I'm grateful for the experiences, the good, bad and the ugly of the past but I want to elevate myself. Coming to Leicester has given me the opportunity with university and work.

"I feel like my life is a continuous cycle of moving and I'm kind of tired of it. I'm 21. I'm going to be 22 when I graduate. I want to find my home - a happy place - just a place where I can be me, where I don't have to continue to meet new people, where I don't have to find a new job and get to know people again."

Because Daveena has lived in student accommodation in the city for three years including the summer holidays, Leicester City Council told ITV Central she would pass the 'local connection' rules.

But whether or not she would be given priority in the same way as someone who had always been under their care would depend on individual circumstances.

"I think in this current climate where mental health is important, it's not right that I should choose between homelessness or an environment where I'm not going to be okay and I don't have my support system.

"A lot of things that happened where I came from, the memories are still there. If I had to move back there, I wouldn't be able to escape it because there are places that represent those things.

"It's nerve racking because I just want peace."

Tayahnay is currently being forced to live in a hostel in the capital. She went into care as a teenager and was moved from the Midlands into supported accommodation in London. She's now made friends there and been to college but when she applied for social housing was told that because she hadn't lived in London continuously for five years, she didn't qualify to even go on the list.

Her only choice to get proper housing would be to return to Nottingham where things were difficult.

"It makes me feel disregarded and not as valuable as other people because I don't have the money for private rental and I'm not eligible for council housing. I don't want to go back somewhere where I have no friends. All of my friends are here. My education is here."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said:“We are working quickly to exempt care leavers from local connection rules which can restrict their access to social housing.“Our plans will make sure care leavers across the country have access to housing in the area that works best for them, and we will make these changes as soon as possible.”

While in London the women became founder members of a new cross party group with MPs to showcase what is happening in the 107 Local Authorities that have passed a motion to treat Care Experience as if it is a Protected Characteristic.

They say they're pleased to be able to set the agenda with the politicians and have a voice.