Why the status quo for emergency accommodation for the homeless must change

COMMENT Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the “Everyone In” scheme and efforts from charities and local government, thousands of people have been made homeless. Homelessness amongst young people is at an unprecedented high, with a year-on-year rise of almost 50% in the number of 16 to 25-year-olds sleeping rough in the capital in 2020. Our research has shown that purpose-built emergency accommodation for young people who find themselves without a home is a rarity across the UK. And efforts to procure such accommodation are often hindered by the current statutory system, owing to a misunderstanding of this specialist need and lack of centralised guidance, legislation and design codes associated with it. This has been the case for a long time. Despite the fact that the design guidelines for traditional housing are improved and updated by regulatory bodies year upon year, this area of specialist housing provision remains neglected and fundamentally misunderstood – an omission clearly reflected in the built environment around us. Shine a light Both personal experience as an architect working on an emergency shelter for families in Newham and the case study projects in the publication Leading by Example have highlighted the obstacles that a lack of guidelines leads to. This is not just in terms of designing a building that is fit for its use, but also in terms of the additional time, determination, consultants and funding required to get a project off the ground that is not prescribed by planning use. There is not time for convoluted processes in the face of today’s homelessness crisis, which is set to shape the course of so many young lives. With the government launching an algorithm to determine new housing provision across the UK, emergency accommodation for young people is, by comparison, a blind spot. And yet it is a fundamental part of the picture, alongside affordable and social housing, that must be understood and legislated for if we are to meet society’s housing need and put an end to the systematic issue of homelessness. It is our job, as an industry, to shine a light on this gap in policy and provision, and to change the status quo, as urgently as the situation demands. Miranda MacLaren, a director at Morris + Company, Heather Macey, associate director at John McAslan + Partners, and I have been working collectively to understand how to effect change, talking to charities, social workers, designers, local and central authorities, private sector developers and, critically, to young people who have experienced homelessness and who are living in shelters. Dignified spaces The story has to begin with these young people. With the help of an RIBA research grant, we have made a short film, We are not bad kids, which we ask people to watch and share, as a fundamental step in addressing the misunderstanding around youth homelessness. We have also compiled case studies of successful emergency housing in the paper Leading by Example. And we are launching our manifesto and design guidelines, We Recommend, which we are lobbying the industry to support, and the Greater London Authority and all local authorities to adopt, without delay. These holistic guidelines emphasise providing young people with the right balance between the private and shared experience, through dignified spaces ranging from a support room to a kitchen table where people can socialise, to a comfortable bed where they can feel safe at night. They focus on the young person’s journey, from the moment they arrive, alone, at a shelter to the moment they leave, hopefully with the experiences and support network behind them, to make the next step towards independent living. Polina Pencheva is an associate at Morris + Company