Homelessness among young people is three times higher than government figures suggest, according to a major study by University of Cambridge housing experts.

While the Department for Communities and Local Government puts the number of homeless 16 to 25 year olds at 26,852, the study by Cambridge University’s Centre for Housing and Planning Research puts the real figure at more than 83,000.

The researchers said even this “worryingly high” projection is a minimum estimate – and that figures could well be much higher.

Balbir Chatrik, policy director of the homelessness charity Centrepoint, which commissioned the study, told The Independent: “Successive governments have been making policy in the dark as they have failed to grasp the sheer scale of youth homelessness in the UK.

The blame, according to Chatrik, lays with funding decisions which have put “extreme pressure on charities and local authorities, with the majority of hostels full or oversubscribed.”

RT