Thoughts from our CEO, Nanette Mellor

It’s all there, written very clearly in decades of psychological research. Young Men have a very basic, fundamental and psychological need for territory. They believe they need it to attract a mate in order to reproduce. They need that territory to make their mate feel safe enough to bare children and to be able to protect their offspring from competitors.  

They need a home to have a family.

If they can’t reproduce, when they die, their entire genealogical history dies with them.

Take away the opportunity to get a home, just one, little piece of territory, and see what happens. Take it away and they will begin to fight. They will fight to survive because they feel that they are literally fighting for their life.

For years, discussion about the housing crisis has focused on affordability, supply, mortgages, and economic policy. While these issues are undeniably important, an equally significant consequence often receives far less attention: the profound psychological impact that housing insecurity has on young people.

Emerging research from housing scholars, psychologists, and sociologists suggests that being unable to secure a permanent home affects far more than financial wellbeing. It can undermine identity, independence, mental health, and an individual’s sense of place in society.

At its heart, the housing crisis is not simply about property. It’s about having, or not having a future. The Territory Problem Nobody Wants to Discuss

Across psychology, sociology, and evolutionary theory, researchers have long argued that human beings have a fundamental need for territory.

The word “territory” often makes people uncomfortable because it conjures images of animals defending patches of land. Yet in psychological terms, territory simply means having a space that is secure, predictable, and under your control.

For most of human history, securing territory was directly linked to survival. It provided shelter, protection, resources, and a place to raise children. Today, that territory is not a hunting ground or a farm. It is a home.

Modern housing fulfils many of the same psychological functions. A home provides safety, autonomy, privacy, stability, and the ability to plan for the future.

When people cannot secure a home, they lose more than shelter. They lose their anchor in society.

Home Is About More Than Shelter

Environmental psychologists describe the home as a source of ontological security.

This is the feeling that life is stable, predictable, and under one’s control. It is the confidence that allows people to build routines, relationships, ambitions, and long-term plans.

For a growing number of young adults, that security no longer exists.

Many are trapped in expensive house shares, insecure private rentals, or prolonged dependence on parents. They may have jobs. They may have qualifications. They may be working hard.

Yet they still cannot access a place that genuinely feels like their own.

Increasingly, they inhabit spaces without controlling them. They live as permanent guests.

That has profound psychological consequences.

Stuck Between Childhood and Adulthood

One of the most overlooked consequences of the housing crisis is the way it delays adulthood.

Historically, leaving the parental home marked the beginning of adult independence. It allowed young people to establish identities separate from their families, create new relationships, and build households of their own.

Today, millions find themselves unable to make that transition.

The result is a growing sense of being stuck.

Many describe feeling suspended in a state somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. They cannot make long-term decisions because they do not know where they will be living next year. They cannot confidently plan for marriage, children, or family life because the foundation required for those things remains out of reach.

The psychological effect is not simply frustration.

It is powerlessness.

Why This Hits Young Men Particularly Hard

Housing insecurity affects everyone, but there are reasons to believe it carries particular implications for young men.

Despite enormous cultural changes, society still links masculinity to independence, provision, achievement, and stability.

Many young men continue to measure themselves against those expectations.

Historically, securing a home was one of the clearest indicators that a man had successfully transitioned into adulthood. It demonstrated responsibility, stability, and the ability to provide a secure environment for a future family.

Today, that pathway is increasingly blocked.

For many young men, homeownership is not delayed. It feels impossible.

The result is not just financial disappointment. It can become an existential problem.

A man who believes he cannot establish a home may begin to feel he cannot establish a future.

Housing, Relationships, and Family Formation

This is where uncomfortable realities begin to emerge.

Research consistently shows that housing affordability influences family formation, relationship stability, marriage rates, and birth rates.

People do not simply need affection to start families. They need somewhere to live.

A secure home creates the environment in which long-term relationships can flourish and children can be raised.

Without that foundation, many young people postpone key life decisions indefinitely.

For young men in particular, housing often becomes intertwined with perceptions of relationship eligibility. Many believe they should not actively pursue long-term relationships until they have achieved a degree of financial and residential stability.

Whether that belief is objectively right or wrong is almost irrelevant.

The important point is that it is psychologically real.

When large numbers of young men conclude they will never secure a stable home, many also conclude they will never achieve the wider adult life they expected to build.

The Rise of Resignation

From Alienation to Radicalisation

There is growing evidence that economic deprivation, social isolation, and perceived lack of opportunity can create fertile ground for extremist narratives. This does not mean housing insecurity automatically produces extremism.

Most frustrated young men never become radicals.

However, academic research increasingly suggests that communities experiencing deprivation, declining opportunity, and social exclusion can become more vulnerable to support for populist and far-right movements.

The mechanism is relatively straightforward. When people lose faith in mainstream institutions, they begin searching for alternative explanations for their circumstances.

When they feel excluded from opportunity, they become more receptive to voices that promise restoration, recognition, and someone to blame.

When they feel ignored, they become attracted to movements that claim to speak directly to their grievances.

The danger is intensified among people who feel they have lost not only economic status but a meaningful future.

The Housing Crisis as a Security Issue

Politicians still tend to frame housing as an economic policy challenge.

That is understandable. But it may be incomplete.

Housing is also a mental health issue.

It is a family formation issue.

It is a community cohesion issue.

And increasingly, it may be a political stability issue.

If large numbers of young people come to believe they have no realistic path to independence, family life, or social advancement, frustration will not simply disappear.

It will seek an outlet.

History repeatedly shows that societies become unstable when large populations, particularly young men, believe they have no stake in the future.

Find Them Homes

The solution is not to lecture young people about resilience.

It is not to tell them to lower their expectations.

It is not to dismiss their concerns as entitlement.

The solution is to recognise that housing is not a luxury aspiration. It is a psychological necessity.

A stable home provides more than shelter. It provides territory, identity, autonomy, dignity, and hope.

We cannot build a healthy society while denying an entire generation access to those foundations.

The warning signs are already visible in rising anxiety, falling trust, declining family formation, growing loneliness, and increasing political polarisation and a falling birthrate.

The housing crisis is no longer simply about the cost of houses. It is about whether young people can see a future worth investing in.

Because if we do not find our young people homes, others will find them explanations.

And history suggests that is when societies begin to pay a far higher price than the cost of building houses.