Thousands of young Britons homeless this Christmas

This video is called A young man asks a homeless man to borrow his bucket, what happens next will burst you into tears.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Thousands of youngsters homeless this Christmas

Monday 22nd December 2014

THOUSANDS of young people are facing homelessness this Christmas with almost one in five forced to crash in unsafe places in the last year, charity Centrepoint warned yesterday.

The charity highlighted that 18 per cent of 16 to 25-year-olds polled were forced to sleep in the street, in cars and on night buses as they had nowhere else to stay. Meanwhile 20 per cent had to sofa surf.

Comfort Orotayo, 21, from south London, spent last Christmas at her friend’s house, having been homeless for four months after a family breakdown.

She says being homeless during the festive season made her feel “disconnected and alone” and like she was “watching a movie of someone else’s Christmas.”

In the new year, she received help from Centrepoint and stayed in one of their hostels for most of the year before moving into her own flat.

Ms Orotayo said homelessness can happen to “anybody” and said circumstances can “change within an instant.”

She added: “I just think everybody should take time, before they die, to at least chat to a homeless person, because I swear, the conversation you will have will change your life, or change your outlook on life, and change your perspective on life, your perception of people.”

Centrepoint director Balbir Chatrik cited “family breakdown” as the most common cause for young people becoming homeless and said people usually stay in a Centrepoint hostel for anywhere between six months and two years.

The charity offers young homeless people individual learning support in a bid to help them access education and training or employment.

THE government’s failure to tackle the chronic housing shortage will mean nearly 90,000 children will spend Christmas in emergency accommodation, Labour said yesterday.

Britain: NEARLY three-quarters of a million long-term unemployed are spending their second Christmas without work — 450,000 more than ministers’ official figure: here.

See also here.

THE LIFE OF A HOMELESS COLLEGE STUDENT “[Sean] McLean is one of more than 58,000 homeless college students in America today, according to Free Application for Federal Student Aid data from the 2012-2013 academic year. The figure — which does not account for students who either do not realize they qualify as homeless (i.e., couch-surfers) or those who choose not to report their cases out of fear or shame — marks a more than 75 percent increase over the previous three years. Administrators and poverty advocates nationwide attribute the recent spike in homelessness among college students to several leading factors: a parent losing a job, a lack of affordable housing and rising tuition costs.” [HuffPost]

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