Councils are turning homeless young people away from support. Gatekeeping won't end homelessness

More than 100,000 young people in England faced homelessness in 2023-24, according to Centrepoint’s latest Youth Homelessness Databank. However, a third of young people who called our helpline told us they’d been turned away from support.

The law is clear: under the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA), everyone who presents to their local authority as homeless or at risk of homelessness should receive an assessment. But new analysis from Centrepoint has found that hundreds of young people aren’t getting that, in a practice called gatekeeping, whereby local authorities block access to services.  

Between August 2024 and July 2025, Centrepoint’s helpline received 449 calls from young people who’d been denied a homelessness assessment and/or support by a local authority. Both of which they are legally entitled to.  

This means, on average, at least one young person a day was a victim of gatekeeping and couldn’t access the help they desperately needed.  

What’s worse is that some of the most vulnerable people in society are being denied vital support. In total, 73 of all recorded cases were from young people experiencing domestic abuse, while 48 were pregnant or had children.  

One young person approached the Centrepoint Helpline after fleeing her home due to physical, emotional and financial abuse. She had somewhere to stay over the weekend, but nothing after that, meaning she was at risk of sleeping on the streets.  

When they approached their council, they weren’t offered a homelessness assessment or interim accommodation. Instead, the council told them to contact Centrepoint and also directed her to a homelessness outreach service. Doing this went against the Housing Act 1996 and placed the young person at risk of being forced to return to an abusive household.  

This is just the tip of the iceberg. In almost one-third of the calls received by the Centrepoint Helpline where gatekeeping was evident, young people weren’t given an assessment because they were deemed not to be in priority need. This is despite the HRA requiring local authorities to conduct an assessment even if people are not in priority need.  

The Centrepoint Helpline also frequently receives reports of local authorities turning away young people based on not having a local connection or believing them to be intentionally homeless. These factors shouldn’t have an impact on whether an assessment is carried out.

One young person contacted the helpline to report that they and their partner, who was eight weeks pregnant, were at risk of rough sleeping after being asked to leave the property where they had been sofa surfing for the past six months.  

However, when they contacted the council, they were told that the partner didn’t have a local connection because she hadn’t lived in the area for two years. As most young people don’t know the intricacies of the Homelessness Reduction Act, they frequently take their councils’ advice at face value, leaving charities and frontline organisations, such as Centrepoint, to advocate for them and explain their rights to councils.

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While it’s not acceptable for councils to be engaging in this practice, it’s important to acknowledge the context in which they are working. Many years of chronic underfunding from central government have forced local authorities to make impossible decisions around who receives support.  

Heartbreakingly, these difficult decisions will only continue without urgent central government intervention.

While the path to tackling this won’t be easy, a first step is to ensure councils across England have enough resources to make sure all young people reaching out for help receive an assessment and support, if required.  

Research conducted by WPI Economics for Centrepoint found councils needed at least £400 million extra in funding to assess and support a third of young people who were turned away from support in 2023-24.

However, it’s not just about money. There must be much greater scrutiny over how local councils provide homelessness assessments and support. We all have our sights set on ending homelessness, but we can’t get there if councils aren’t meeting their obligations and adhering to best practice.  

By directing more funding to local councils and increasing oversight to ensure that local authorities provide consistent, high-quality support for young people, the government can help to end this unlawful practice for good.

Dr Lisa Doyle is head of policy and public affairs at Centrepoint.

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