It looks like AirBnB, a glossy site where you can pick your destination and find beautiful little B&B rooms for your romantic weekend away, but if you look closely, the subheading beneath ‘Start your adventure’ actually reads: ‘Discover destinations that nobody loves’.
Search for a place to stay on CareBandB, and you get an array of horribly depressing-looking flats with names like ‘Halfway Hotel’ and ‘Grim Retreat’, none of which have got above half a star rating. Yes, this is Barnado’s latest campaign to highlight the fact that 51% of local authorities are placing young people who have left care aged 16 in exactly this sort of squalor for long periods of time – and against government regulation.
‘When I stayed in B&B accommodation I was constantly scared and worried about what could happen to me,’ says Jack, 18. ‘The B&B was above a pub so I’d have to endure extreme noise levels and drunk people banging on my door very late at night. There was no heating in the room and the TV wouldn’t work, so I soon became very depressed and lonely. On more than one occasion I contemplated suicide.’
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Now, thanks to Barnado’s, he currently lives in a proper bedsit, minus drunk people and a broken TV.
‘We recognise that local authorities are working with limited budgets, but they need a range of ways of providing emergency accommodation,’ says Barnado’s CEO Javed Khan. ‘The site is a tongue-in-cheek way of getting across a serious message about care leavers forced to live in cold, stark accommodation.
‘While many people browse inviting websites filled with cosy and welcoming B&Bs for the perfect weekend away, our vulnerable young people have no choice but to accept the unacceptable.’
The government assessment of care leavers is to take place this month, so Barnado’s is using the site to promote its Beyond Care campaign, urging local councillors to ask for better conditions for care leavers.
If you thought your rented accommodation was bad, it’s nothing compared to this. And haven’t young people in care had enough of a rough time without dealing with living in unsafe shitholes? Exactly.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.