Street Art Highlights Homelessness

With some 22,000 young people facing homelessness this Christmas, Centrepoint says the writing’s on the wall.

The charity is putting the next government in the picture, partnering with four street artists – and agency CreativeDrive – to design and paint large pieces of street art at six London sites. On show are silhouette stories of six young people that Centrepoint has supported from homelessness to independence, reports 24housing.

“This campaign is about telling the stories of young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness through no fault of their own,” said Amy Klein, Centrepoint’s senior direct marketing manager. This winter, 22,000 young people will be homeless or at risk. By using disruptive advertising methods like street art, Centrepoint aims to raise awareness of the scale of youth homelessness and gain the support of the public to help end it,” she said.

The campaign, “We Will Be Heard”, also wants to push the government towards building affordable housing and making Universal Credit fair for young people. Graffiti artists Zabou, Jeba, Tizer, and Bullet on a String have each brought their own unique creative styles to the campaign.

In Gaskin Street, North London, Zabou has created a large portrait of Becca (pictured) who, helped by Centrepoint, went from being homeless after the relationship with her family broke down to playing for England at the Homeless World Cup. “Before I was involved with the football, there wasn’t much that I would engage with. I was just in a bad way,” said Becca, who now volunteers as a coach for Centrepoint. “And though I got into it for the football, I soon realised it was way bigger than that, and I started to learn different transferable skills that really helped me in day-to-day life.”

Centrepoint’s Databank project collects data on the number of young people who approached their council over the Christmas period for help as they were homeless or at risk of homelessness. The Databank project is ongoing but all data is correct as of August this year, with 248 councils providing information on how many young people presented to them over this period – that’s 76% of all councils in England.