Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Oasis Collector's Edition is HERE! - Get yours before they go.
GET MINE
Housing

YMCA: Why the Y:Cube is a solution to affordable housing

YMCA chief Richard James on how one resident's legacy – and a chance meeting – led to their Y:Cube affordable modular homes

Y:Cube, Mitcham, south London

It was late on a Thursday night and I was sat in a young residents’ forum meeting in our YMCA hostel. The somewhat dejected comment from Troy, who had lived with us for 12 months, struck home hard:

“I’ve done everything I need to, I’ve got a job, paid my rent, not got into any trouble – I am ready to move on from the YMCA but where can I possibly live in this area – this is my home and I can’t afford to be here.”

I am ready to move on from the YMCA, but where can I possibly afford to live in this area?

Troy had come to us after floating around from sofa to sofa, depending on the support of friends to be able to survive. Eventually his sofa options had run out and he found himself outside the train station, sleeping rough but hopeful.

Eventually he had been picked up by the street team and referred into YMCA. Quite quickly he had demonstrated his ability to take responsibility for himself, but the lack of being able to find anywhere affordable and suitable was proving impossible.

Y:Cube, Mitcham, south London

Troy is not unique across the London metropolitan area. Each night in YMCA St Paul’s Group we host around 1,100 people, most of them young, who have been trapped by Troy’s hidden homeless problem.

Find a job and they lose their benefits, lose their benefits and then they lose any slim hope they have of finding a place to live. They may end up sleeping rough but more often than not they live from sofa to sofa, their hope seeping away with each relocation.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
  • As part of The Big Issue Platform, we are inviting people from all strands of society to tell us what can be done about homelessness. Get in touch @BigIssue

Whilst we are involved in campaigning for changes in policy that will eradicate homelessness, as a YMCA we also wanted to be positive and suggest an alternative – and then through a chance conversation with world-renowned architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, Y:Cube was born.

Y:Cube is YMCA’s contribution to address the lack of affordable accommodation. A Y:Cube is a modular, off-site housing solution which is developed and delivered by us to provide 100 per cent affordable accommodation. Whilst others build profiles on the potential of modular off-site accommodation, we as a YMCA have just got on and delivered it.

In 2015 we opened our first Y:Cube site in Mitcham, south London (pictured above and below). Each Y:Cube in Mitcham cost approximately £50,000, built and fitted on-site. It provides 28 square metres of quality, affordable accommodation that will allow young people to thrive.

Y:Cube, Mitcham, south London

Not content with stopping there, we now have several other schemes at various stages of planning or development, with lessons for improvement taken from Mitcham. New schemes will have added facilities to improve communities. Unlike the commercial developers, we don’t see the opportunity of modular accommodation as the means to improve our profit margins but rather drive down the rent we charge.

Sadly Troy needed to move on before we could accommodate him in Y:Cube. However he created a legacy that others are benefitting from. Since opening Mitcham we have now merged four YMCAs into one so that we can further invest in more Y:Cubes.

Our next scheme in south-west London will include a Y:Cube-style nursery and a community facility so that we can also offer employment and an apprenticeship to young people like Troy.

Richard James is the CEO at YMCA St Paul’s Group

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

Will you sign Big Issue's petition to ask Keir Starmer to pass a Poverty Zero law? It's time to hold government to account on poverty once and for all.

Recommended for you

View all
Labour wants to shake-up the controversial Right to Buy scheme with these three steps
Labour housing secretary Angela Rayner and housing minister Matthew Pennycook
Right to buy

Labour wants to shake-up the controversial Right to Buy scheme with these three steps

Over 10 times more women sleeping rough than official stats suggest, report says
A woman on the street
Rough sleeping

Over 10 times more women sleeping rough than official stats suggest, report says

Labour wants to build 300,000 affordable and social homes in 10 years. But is it enough?
Labour housing secretary Angela Rayner
Social housing

Labour wants to build 300,000 affordable and social homes in 10 years. But is it enough?

Rough sleeping in London hits record high amid warnings of benefit cuts making things worse
a homeless man sitting on the street with his dog
Rough sleeping

Rough sleeping in London hits record high amid warnings of benefit cuts making things worse

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know

Support our vendors with a subscription

For each subscription to the magazine, we’ll provide a vendor with a reusable water bottle, making it easier for them to access cold water on hot days.