THERE is no more upsetting sight than seeing a homeless young person on the street especially in our unforgiving British Winter.

Yet, this is not only still happening in towns like Bolton up and down the country but is set to get worse if the Government goes ahead with plans to end housing support payments for under-21s.

This withdrawal will affect new Universal Credit claims made after April 1. It’s been on the cards for a while. Homeless charities have already pleaded with Theresa May to drop this policy but last week secondary legislation to proceed with it was published.

Charities say that this plan saves almost no money and could easily drive up homelessness, and the prospect of many more homeless youngsters could actually end up costing taxpayers more money overall.

Research by housing charity Shelter has shown that five households are now being made homeless every hour. Young people regularly leave home for a variety of reasons, often forced out, and the only place to go may well be the streets where they are particularly vulnerable.

We are luckier than some places as here we have Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme, which is just marking 25 years of getting young people off the streets and into housing.

Since it began, the organisation has helped 8,000 youngsters aged 16 to 25, stopping them being homeless and involved in the downward spiral of physical and mental health and very real danger that living on the streets means.

Now, they annually help around 340 young people in a variety of accommodation including supported tenancies. The word “support” also covers a large area which includes helping the young people to handle their finances properly and, hopefully, getting into employment.

The charity does an amazing job and Maura Jackson, its CEO for the past five years, is a tireless fighter for the organisation and its youngsters. As another well-known local campaigner, Dave Bagley from Urban Outreach who, predictably, helped set up BYPHS, said at its anniversary lunch: “We never dreamed that we would be here in 25 years – but then we never dreamed that we would still need to be here.”

Homeless youngsters will always be with us unless more is done to help and support them. Sadly, a plan to end their housing support payments will have a drastic effect on how they are allowed to move forward to a better life.