Youth Homelessness in the Cotswolds

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National Homelessness Conference 9th - 10th
November 2007
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What is Homelessness? A study of Young Peoples
Understanding of their Risk of Homelessness

• Dr Joan Smith and Dr Megan Ravenhill
• Centre for Housing and Community Research
• Cities Institute
• London Metropolitan University
• Contact joan.smith_at_londonmet.ac.uk

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The Family Background of Young Homeless People

• Pre 1997 young people were blamed for leaving
  home
• Between one sixth and one third of young people
  in any homeless hostel had a background in LA
  care but what of the two-thirds?
• An in-depth study undertaken by CHCR (Family
  Background of Young Homeless People, JRF, 1998)
  interviewed 56 young people who became homeless
  from the family home, not care, and also
  interviewed at least one parent in half of all
  cases.
• One third of young people were homeless from
  non-disrupted homes, largely because of their own
  behaviour, but two-thirds were homeless from
  disrupted homes largely through parental
  behaviour.
• The study interviewed 60 families from local
  estates where young people were still living at
  home. A majority of these parents supported the
  reasons that parents of homeless young people
  made them homeless by asking them to leave.
• The study identified a Circle of Risk for young
  people.

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Identifying young people at risk of homelessness

• Taking Risks (Breugel and Smith, 1999). The first
  quantitative study of risk was undertaken for
  Safe in the City. 200 interviews of young
  people aged 16-19 years from London living in
  London hostels a matched sample of 150 yp living
  at home on estates
• Produced two risk indices a) risk by individual
  - their biographical risks from interviews
  b) risk by area postcodes of last family home
• The odds ratios gained by comparing the
  homeless and local samples created an index of
  risk.
• Led to the gate-keeping tool of 5 risk factors
  for the Safe in the City programme. SinC
  programme worked in 8 London boroughs with 700 yp
  most at risk of homelessness. Programmes had 3
  dimensions personal development, employment and
  education, and work with parents.
• Studies in Birmingham, Cotswolds and North
  Staffordshire found the same factors.

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Risks for individual young people in London
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Risks by area for the young person

• Different societies carry different risks of
  poverty, of street violence, of rates of
  imprisonment, of deprivation.
• In London the postcode of each of the 200 young
  people last lived with their family were used to
  identify the borough ward they lived in.
• The borough probability of generating youth
  homelessness correlated with male registered
  unemployment at .9149 and the average index of
  deprivation for the borough at .7743
• Young people are also at risk from moral order
  judgements. Do other parents believe that parents
  have the right to throw out young people who are
  arguing with them, or on drugs?
• How are young people labelled?
• QUESTION What understandings do young people
  have of their own risk of homelessness?

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What is Homelessness?

• The What is Homelessness? research project
  AIMED to find out young peoples perceptions of,
  understandings of, and experience of
• Home, homelessness and leaving home
• Running away and staying away
• And to discuss their ideas about
• Preventing runaways behaviour and youth
  homelessness
• METHOD
• 30 group interviews with young people (200 plus)
  in four London boroughs out of school projects,
  in school, and PRUs
• 10 group interviews with parents in four London
  boroughs
• Then these ideas were tested through
• 22 individual interviews with young people who
  have run away and, where possible, with their
  parents/carers.
• Findings were discussed with practitioners and
  youth educators

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What is home? What does home mean to you?

• Young People
• Home was defined in terms of feelings
• Acceptance, wanted, safe, loved, respected, where
  you belong
• Activities
• Where you eat and sleep, where you socialise,
  where you can have safe arguments
• People
• Where your family is, where you can trust people
• Parents defined home as
• A safe, stable place for you and your children.
• They were surprised that young people agreed with
  them. They thought young people saw it as bed
  and breakfast and a place for them to have their
  own space.

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Who is homeless?

• Young people and Parents
• Defined homelessness in terms of
• Levels of safety  
• Degree of permanence
• Whether or not a young person could return home.
• Most young people would not recognise themselves
  as homeless
• Living with a grandparent or close family even
  if they slept on the floor or sofa.
• Living with a friend and were wanted there.
• Half of young people thought that a young person
  who felt threatened, unsafe or unwanted either in
  the parental home or a friends or relatives
  home was not homeless.
• Most parents did not recognise staying with
  family members or friends of the parent as
  homelessness but a young person staying with
  their own friends would be homeless.

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Leaving Home

• Young people thought they would need to
• Save 1000 to 2000 in order to set up home,
• Earn between 300 and 2000 a week to cover rent,
  and cost of living
• Jobs where 16 year olds could earn 1000 a week
  Teacher, nursery nurse, builder, taxi driver,
  shop assistant, plumber,drug dealer.
• At 16 a young person would receive 50 to 100 a
  week in benefits, and get a 1-bedroom flat from
  the council. Rent of a 1 bed flat was between
  50-500
• About half the young people knew where their
  local housing office was and half where their
  local social services office was.
•  Parents thought this showed how unrealistic
  young people were. They wanted the cost of living
  taught in schools and careers advice that
  included wages, qualifications needed and costs
  in London.

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Avoiding leaving home due to family disputes

•    Young People wanted
• Access to mediation between them and their
  parents
• To know their options if they could not stay at
  home and have explained the consequences of
  choosing each option
• To be able to talk through their options with
  someone they trusted.
• To take their time, make their own decision and
  be supported when they did
• To be able to go back and try again if they made
  the wrong decision
• Parents would
• Sacrifice themselves (sleep in the living room,
  turn downstairs room into a bedroom) or allow
  respite stays with relatives.

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Reasons for family disputes and leaving home

• Young people
• The main reasons for family disputes and leaving
  home
• Family pressure
• Young persons behaviour
• Abuse.
•  Parents
• Saw peer pressure as a large contributory factor
  in family disputes leading to young people
  running away
• or staying away from home.

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Communication between young people and parents

• Young people
•  Communication problems were linked to problems
  of mutual respect and young peoples attitudes .
•  They felt cut off and remote from their parents,
  and often unable to talk to them. They
  described feeling locked down, unable to
  discuss things that worried them, except with a
  very close friend.
• Young people reported bullying in the
  neighbourhood as well as at school. They felt
  not at home if it was unsafe or intimidating.
• They wanted to know that if they had a problem
  they could talk to their parents
• Young people wanted me time, when their parent
  spent time just with them.
•  Arguments at home are necessary, they are safe
  arguments.
•  

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Parents perspectives on communication

• Parents thought problems of communication were
• Young peoples attitude, unwillingness to listen
  or continuous flouting of house rules.
• Feeling cut out by their children, unheard and
  torn between letting them learn from their
  mistakes and protecting them from perceived
  dangers.
• Seeing that their child was locked down, but
  feeling powerless to break in, instead waiting,
  hoping that the young person would open up to
  them if they backed off
• Parents wanted equal rights with their children.
  Young people quoted their rights to their
  parents. Parents felt they had no rights.
• Parents felt bullied by school policies aimed at
  their child and them.
• Parents feared their neighbourhood and would not
  go out after dark. They feared for their childs
  safety.

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Safe Arguments and Respect

• For young people safe arguments are important.
• A sign of being loved
• A sign of healthy relationships
• A negotiation of boundaries
• A safety valve
• Parents saw things differently. Parents saw
  arguments as a lack of respect, stressful,
  dangerous, hurtful, treading on egg shells.
• Young people wanted to be respected by their
  families.
• To be heard is to be respected. Feeling safe and
  secure within the family and home is to be
  respected
• Parents wanted young people to respect themselves
  this would keep them safe. They wanted their
  young people to respect them and thought it came
  from their early relationship with their child.

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Running away or Running To

• Running away meant
• Leaving without telling the parent where they
  were. Its aim was
• To make parents realise something is wrong,
• To make an angry statement,
• To provoke a reaction from their parent,
• To avoid tensions in the home
• To avoid being punished.
• Running to meant
• Staying with a friend or relative with their
  parents knowledge. This was often negotiated,
  parents or young people could make the
  arrangements. Its aim was
• To give both parent and child space
• To act as a safety valve
• To protect the relationship from being totally
  destroyed

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Running away or being kicked out

• Young people reported that being kicked out -
  fell into two categories,
• Irreparable damage to the relationship no going
  back
• Idle threats where the young person was thrown
  out for an hour or so while everyone cooled down
• Young people thought behaviour bad enough to be
  kicked out was
• Drugs,
• Drink
• Crime
• Anything that repeatedly brought trouble to the
  door

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Young peoples advice to those being icked out

• Young peoples advice
• Try and return home avoid leaving permanently.
  
• Try and find somewhere to stay for a few nights
• Get someone else to mediate -
• A member of their family
• A friend of their parent
• Their own friends parent
• If the unofficial routes fail
• Look on the internet
• Go to the housing department or social services
• Talk to a trusted teacher or other people at
  school (eg. Connexions)
• Contact organizations such as Childline or the
  NSPCC.

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Talking to runaways

• Runaways is a term recognised by young people,
  missing is not.
• We interviewed young people who had runaway in
  two types of location local projects and
  pan-London projects. The range of experience is
  huge.
• Local projects Young people ranged from those
  running away for respite - from problems in their
  school and/or neighbourhood but not their family,
  to those running away principally from their
  families. A quarter were permanently re-housed
  away from their family because of abuse or
  neglect. In three-quarters early intervention
  could have helped.
• Pan-London projects Young people were running
  from their family, or had been kicked out from
  their family. Only a quarter expressed any wish
  to be reconciled with their family, or to go back
  home. Almost all required, or had required, a
  service intervention from Social Services at an
  earlier stage.

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Runaways in their local area

• Local runaways were seeking what the young people
  in groups described respite, notice of their
  problems, proof they were loved.
• Some ran for a day, for a week, others stayed
  away for months
• Some moved in with relatives and let their
  parents know then they were staying away.
• Many had experienced traumatic life events
  including death of a mother, disappearance of a
  father, transfer of country orarea, childhood
  illness, parental addiction or criminal activity.
  
• In the case of parental addiction or criminal
  activity young people could decide to hide their
  parents activity, or seek help.
• Their local agencies were important to them.
  There they found a trusted adult from whom they
  accepted counselling and advice.
• Young people were active in protecting themselves
  from homelessness. Using mobile phones to book
  rooms.

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Runaways in Pan-London projects

• All the young people interviewed in the
  pan-London projects were seeking a service
  response.
• A range of problems from the unendurable (extreme
  physical abuse, threats to life, neglect) to
  family problems from which they needed long-term
  respite.
• Purpose in running away was different from the
  majority of the local runaways they wanted to
  protect themselves and to trigger a service
  response. Most wanted to go to care.
• Young peoples problems had either begun at an
  early age (primary school) or physical violence
  had begun at age 11 or 12 years.
• Physical violence from their mother in many
  cases. Social Services frequently believed the
  mother.
• Social services avoiding taking responsibility
  for teenagers.

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Understanding running away
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Conclusions from seminars with practitioners
and youth

• Youth work has been undervalued. Older young
  people need places.
• Local voluntary agencies need support to work
  with the families of young people. Extended
  schools will not capture everybody.
• Curriculum change needs to begin in primary
  school to capture those who leave school at 11 or
  drop out
• Peer education and peer mentoring are very
  important when young people are locked down they
  often turn to an older friend
• Pastoral care in schools needs to be
  re-established as a top priority. The Target
  culture has damaged support for the most troubled
  young people. Extended schools will be
  encouraged to do this.
• Parenting programmes need to be provided for all
  parents, with their consent, not imposed on the
  bad parents.
• Pan London funding for Social Services work
  with runaways

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Policy Proposals

• Citizenship curriculum to include real costs of
  leaving home primary school top year
• Support for non-judgemental local services
  working with young people and parents. SinC type
  programmes
• Non-judgemental parenting programmes in extended
  schools
• Expanding school anti-bullying programmes into
  one to one mediation training.
• Website for advice on problems at home and
  leaving home. Keywords need to be channelled to
  the website.
• Funding mobile phone contact, Keeping the Lines
  Open
• Funding early intervention and Social Service
  intervention with young runaways from Pan-London
  funds

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National Homelessness Conference 9th - 10th
November 2007