City faces 'acute' problem of young homeless.

CHARITY workers in Coventry and Warwickshire have backed calls for more provision for emergency accommodation for homeless youngsters.

The Children's Society published research today showing more than 15,000 children under the age of 16 are thrown out of home in the UK every year with one in five being physically or sexually assaulted while away from home, partly because of a lack of direct emergency accommodation.

Mike Fowler, chief executive of the Coventry Cyrenians, said 870 young people aged between 16 and 24 had contacted them in the last 12 months and the problem of finding them emergency accommodation had become so acute they had started sourcing it outside Coventry for the first time.

He said: "We are seeing quite significant increases in the number of young people under 24 coming to us. It is certainly the area of homelessness which is growing most."

Paul Brophy, from the Young Housing Project in Leamington, said they had more than 1,000 requests for help from people over 16 in the year to February.

He said: "There is not enough emergency accommodation provision for vulnerable young people.

"Resources are few and far between in Warwickshire."

Sally Nesbit, a project worker at Norton House day centre for the homeless in Bird Street, Coventry, said they regularly had to turn away homeless young people under the age of 18, who they can't help because of a lack of insurance.