| 1 | 1 | | The family home is becoming a fully-furnished, cushioned trap for a generation of |
| 2 | | young men and women in London. They are children who have outgrown, but have not |
| 3 | | flown, the child's room, the single bed and the overcrowded board that their parents |
| 4 | | continue to provide. It can be a pretty ratty trap, as space - and family spirit - are |
| 5 | | strained. |
| 2 | 6 | | Many are caught in the nest, unable to clamber out. They lack the means, and |
| 7 | | possibly the motive, to attempt to set up home on their own account in a city which |
| 8 | | seems uniquely hostile to the young and poorly-paid. Whole quarters of the capital are |
| 9 | | acknowledged as no-go areas for the first-time buyer. At the same time the rental market |
| 10 | | has shrunk just as the buying rate has shot up. |
| 3 | 11 | | The alternatives are hardly attractive: the gloomy world of board-and-lodging |
| 12 | | hotels, homelessness without help and, at the end of the line, cardboard boxes under the |
| 13 | | arches of bridges. The other option for the restless young is simply to get out of town. It |
| 14 | | is increasingly difficult for them to continue to live in the boroughs1) where they were |
| 15 | | born. 'Go to Luton, my son,' seems to be the message. Or Chatham. |
| 4 | 16 | | Home, of course, might be a more liberal, live-and-let-live place than it ever was. |
| 17 | | These days middle-aged parents who felt driven to break away at the first opportunity |
| 18 | | from the strict discipline their parents applied, are often laying down a more relaxed set |
| 19 | | of rules for their children. |
| 5 | 20 | | Still, there are probably between 200,000 and 300,000 people, the overwhelming |
| 21 | | majority of them aged under 30, who live under somebody else's roof in London and |
| 22 | | who would like to get away from home and find a place of their own - the sooner, the |
| 23 | | better. |
| 6 | 24 | | 'If you are not actually homeless your chances of being housed are declining all the |
| 25 | | time. These people may find they are unable to get alternative accommodation until they |
| 26 | | have children of their own - and at that stage things become so stressful at home that |
| 27 | | they get thrown out and it becomes the State's responsibility to house them,' said Mr Hal |
| 28 | | Pawson, research officer at the London Research Centre. 'Definitely London has a more |
| 29 | | serious problem than anywhere else.' |
| 7 | 30 | | There is no point in pretending that fashionable London has any property to offer |
| 31 | | within the reach of young people. Often their work has value to the community, but |
| 32 | | precious little in terms of income. And that is what counts. 'It is very difficult in all |
| 33 | | honesty for these youngsters,' said Mr Norman Friend, a London housing expert. "The |
| 34 | | gap is widening because property values have risen above the increase they are getting on |
| 35 | | their wages. I think they have to move out a little bit further.' |
| 8 | 36 | | Those who turn to the council-house waiting list have no better chance of realizing |
| 37 | | their hopes. Camden borough, for instance, admits that its housing list is now little more |
| 38 | | than a register. It contains 11,000 names. Last year Camden completed the princely total |
| 39 | | of nine new council homes - compared with the 1,000-odd built there in 1979-80, the |
| 40 | | year that Mrs Thatcher came to power. There are already 7,000 people living in hotels |
| 41 | | and hostels in the borough. |
| 9 | 42 | | It is against this background that the Government has announced a new national |
| 43 | | study of homelessness. The Government argues that there is sufficient empty property to |
| 44 | | solve the crisis if it were properly used. But Paul Kobrak, young persons housing |
| 45 | | campaigner at CHAR, the campaign for the homeless, says that these homes are often of |
| 46 | | the wrong kind and in the wrong place to help those most in need. |
| 10 | 47 | | He can foresee consequences for the young and their families which hardly |
| 48 | | conform with the prime minister's declared aims. In his view, the perverse approach of |
| 49 | | cutting benefits to young people means it is even more difficult for them to leave home. |
| | | |
| | | from an article by Andrew Moncur in 'The Guardian', March 3, 1987 |
