Hundreds of young people across the Midlands have joined the Social Breakfast online campaign to raise awareness of the problems they face in renting their own home.
More than 630 have signed up to a new Facebook group “More Affordable Housing for Young People” linked to the youth engagement website www.socialbreakfast.org.
The campaign was started six Citizen Journalists working for social breakfast, which is run by Birmingham’s Ashram Housing Association.
“I don’t want to live with my parents – I’m 18 years old, an adult, and I’m employed,” said Citizen Journalist Cally Clark-Traversari, who is from Erdington, Birmingham. “But it’s difficult for me as I’m not earning enough to pay my own rent but I earn too much to qualify for sufficient state support.”
The six citizen journalists chose to start a campaign calling for help to make it easier for young people to find somewhere affordable to rent (www.socialbreakfast.org/affordable-housing-have-your-say/).
They feel there is a lack of support for young, childless people on low incomes and the minimum wage for 18-year-olds is just £4.83, which they say is not enough to live on independently.
Fellow Citizen Journalists Michael Quigley, aged 19, from Holbrook, Coventry, said: “There are a lot of derelict houses around, which are not being used. The Government could pay unemployed young people to renovate these houses, and the young people could in turn rent them at a discounted rate.”
Social breakfast was launched to provide young people with a place to discuss the issues that matter to them and get their views across to politicians. The site has been backed by all three major political parties.
Ashram has secured funding to recruit 40 unemployed young people as citizen journalists to report on the issues which matter to them in their communities.
Social breakfast project manager Lucy Terry said: “This is the first of a number of campaigns the young people are working on and has really taken off.
“In just a matter of weeks hundreds of young people have signed up. Once we get to 1,000+ we will be sending details to Prime Minister David Cameron and the relevant ministers.”
Tags: ashram, social breakfast
