Stop Homelessness Before It Starts

Homelessness often follows family conflict, a mental health crisis, or a sudden change that makes home unsafe. Depaul UK prevents youth homelessness by intervening early and reducing repeat homelessness through practical, tailored, and consistent support that helps young people stay safe, secure a home to live in and begin to shape a brighter future.

Abi’s story shows how we stop homelessness from happening. After the strain of being a young carer and a resulting mental health crisis, she was sofa-surfing and struggling in an unfurnished flat. With Depaul UK’s dedicated support worker, Abi rebuilt stability and confidence step by step.

How Depaul UK’s prevention services work:

• Early intervention: reaching children and young people before homelessness becomes a risk, running targeted workshops and training teachers, youth workers and other professionals to spot the signs.
• Support and Mediation: our aim is to keep families together. While conflict resolution is a vital part, it’s just as much about relieving the pressures on families that can ultimately push young people into homelessness.
• Wraparound support: staff work alongside young people, building trusted relationships, helping them to access mental health support, build life skills, and get into education, training, or work opportunities.
• Influencing policy: we work to influence those in power to invest in prevention and create fairer systems for young people at risk of homelessness.

Homelessness isn’t inevitable. Together, we can prevent it.

Prevention works. Sign up below find out more.

When a young person is close to crisis, timely support can be the difference between a safe, stable home and a frightening slide into homelessness. When people like you show you care, you help make that early action possible.

Learn how prevention works: to receive updates, real stories, practical insight, and simple ways your parish, school or community can help, sign up here.