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A charity providing safe, affordable and supervised accommodation to young people who are homeless has warned there is a "gap" in the provision of housing in Jersey for under-25s after seeing a spike in referrals.
The Jersey Association of Youth and Friendship, which caters specifically for Islanders between the ages of 18 and 25, saw referrals increase from 47 in 2022 to 64 in 2023.
Deputy Hilary Jeune, who chairs the JAYF, explained there was a "huge range" of reasons why a young Islander might be referred, or refer themselves – including abuse.
She continued: "Many of them we see because of the size of the family home – people are living in smaller accommodation in Jersey and often that is very crowded. So they have been asked to leave or relationships are being strained because of the small size of the accommodation.
"Sometimes, parents – because of the nature of Jersey and our different residential arrangements with licensing and non licensing etc – are being asked to make the decision to move away, but the young adult doesn't want to.
"We are definitely seeing that there is a gap in the housing market and accessibility of housing for under 25-year-olds in Jersey."
"There are many reasons for that. Of course, the youngsters we are seeing, we would say that they are vulnerable and they are finding it hard because of the cost of living to be able to pay market rates for accommodation.
"Private landlord accommodation is out of their reach for many reasons, often many of our youngsters are on zero-hour contracts or apprenticeships, or in education, so are not able to access funds."
Deputy Jeune added that there was a "reluctance" among private landlords to rent accommodation to islanders under the age of 25 and that, although the age criteria for the Affordable Housing Gateway was being lowered, social housing was also out of reach for the majority of youngsters catered for by the JAYF.
Pictured: Deputy Jeune said there was a "huge range" of reasons why a young islander might be referred to the JAYF.
"Then there are a number of other social housing trusts out there, but they also don't necessarily have specific policies to support young adults," Deputy Jeune continued, noting that many islanders did not have "the bank of mum and dad" supporting them.
"These are youngsters who, unfortunately, are on their own, or there are difficulties in the family."
Pictured: The JAYF is seeing an increase in referrals from young islanders struggling to find accommodation.
The JAYF was also among several organisations that recently shared statistics with the Jersey Homelessness Strategic Board, which revealed the "bleak" outlook for rough sleepers in the island.
Could you be the next CEO?
Deputy Jeune revealed that the JAYF was looking to appoint a Chief Executive to help the charity "build its vision" while collaborating with government to address the issue.
"We don't want to be here. We want there not to be homelessness in Jersey."
Interested candidates can contact chair@jayf.org.je.
Make a donation:
Anyone wishing to support JAYF can do so by making a donation here.
Attend an event:
There are also number of fundraisers to support JAYF throughout the year, including the Open Gardens series.
The next one is taking place at Domaine des Vaux on Sunday 21 April, and you can find out more here.
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