Rhodri LewisWales political reporter
Despite moving back with her parents to save for a home, one young person described the situation as “impossible”.
The Chartered Institute of Housing said Wales was in the middle of a “deepening housing emergency” and more needed to be done.
Ministers have put more than £2bn into social housing and have set a target of 20,000 homes being built in this Senedd term.
However, figures from housing charity Shelter Cymru earlier this year revealed that up to 94,000 households, or 177,000 people, were waiting for a home, with about 55,000 children part of this number.
At Dinas, a few miles outside Caernarfon, Gwynedd, the Adra housing association is putting up 30 new homes.
It already looks after about 7,000 properties in the area, and says some of the new-builds will be affordable properties and others are for social housing.
But the development does not fill young people on the streets of Caernarfon with any great hope.
“I’ve moved back in with my parents now to try and save up for a house but it’s difficult, especially being on minimum wage… it’s just impossible,” said Bethan Owen.
For Leah Jones, the issue was not even necessarily the availability of enough properties to go around.
“I think there are probably issues with the private sector as well, with landlords charging really high rents that people can’t afford,” she said.
“I think it’s a bigger social issue than just housing stock.
“People not having good enough wages, not being able to buy their own homes.”
Ifor Jones, from Llanrug, believes the situation is dire for people of all ages.
“I imagine it’s difficult for young people, but probably more difficult for families,” he said.
“Because obviously with families if you’ve got two or three children you need more than young people in my opinion.”
Adra’s chief executive Iwan Trefor Jones said Welsh government money to help with new-builds was crucial.
“The Social Housing Grant is a very important source of funding for us to deliver schemes like this, and that grant has increased significantly over the last two to three years, to around £450m by now, but we still need more,” he said.
“The demand is there, and we could do more schemes if we received more funding.”
According to Shelter Cymru, that demand is fuelled through 94,000 households waiting to be homed, which is why the Chartered institute of Housing’s Matt Dicks calls it a “deepening housing emergency”.
“We’re simply not building at the pace and scale we need to, we haven’t got the structure to the housing system that we need in order to deliver that fundamental right of a home for everyone,” he said.
“It’s about one-bed accommodation, because a lot of young people can’t access housing.
“It’s about rebalancing that tenure to provide a housing system that can cope with demand of all types of housing.”
He believes everything is interlinked in this crisis, including the so-called property ladder – where people move up to bigger houses as they get older, or start a family.
“We don’t look at the housing system as a one system approach,” added Mr Dicks.
“We need to start doing that and until we start doing that, we’re not really going to touch the sides in terms of getting to root of the problem.”
In response, the Welsh government said: “Making sure everyone in Wales has a decent, affordable and safe place to call home is a priority.
“Despite unprecedented economic challenges, we’ve invested more than £2bn this Senedd term in social housing and are seeing some of our highest delivery rates in almost 20 years.
“We recognise the increase in demand for social housing. The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill sets out proposals to maximise use of social housing for those most in housing need, including those who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.”
The Welsh Conservatives’ housing spokesperson Joel James said the Welsh government “continues to miss its 20,000 affordable homes target”.
He blamed local development plans being out of date and housebuilders being faced with “overly complex regulations”.
“This consistent failure has now meant that available housing in Wales is at crisis point, leaving many people unable to find homes that they can afford,” he added.
Plaid Cymru’s housing spokeswoman Sian Gwenllian believes the problem is growing.
“Housing is probably about half of the casework we deal with in my constituency and talking to other members of the Senedd it’s the same across Wales,” she said.
“People are living in flats which are not suitable for their needs, there’s mouldy conditions, we see that.
“We see families who may have a child with special needs being cooped up in a tiny flat with no space for that family to use outside.”
She also highlighted “soaring” rents, adding: “We have an emergency here, but it’s not being taken seriously enough, and hasn’t been taken seriously enough for 26 years.”
