This page looks at the issues associated with youth homelessness and some recommended interventions for encouraging young people off the streets.
Young people sleeping rough should be helped off the streets as early as possible to protect against entrenchment. Those in care, and leaving care, can be particularly vulnerable and duty of care legislation acts to protect those at risk.
Young people sleep rough for a variety of reasons and Centrepoint’s Youth Homelessness Index identified eight risk or trigger factors that make young people vulnerable to homelessness:
The Homeless Link survey of needs and provisions found that services that state they work with young people tended to focus on the age range of 16 to 25. 10% of all day centres are aimed at young people and 16% of direct access hostels. Foyers tended to make up a large proportion of the current provision.
Both childrens services and local housing authorities have statutory duties to 16 and 17 year olds; however, there is often confusion about their roles and ideally a joint approach should be considered. Young rough sleepers are protected by duty of care enshrined in legislation by the 1989 Children Act (including amendments to sections 17 and 20 to support unaccompanied asylum seekers), the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 and the 2002 Homelessness Act. However, responsibility for who provides support will depend on the age and situation of a young person:
Under 16 – any young person under the age of 16 is the responsibility of social services and should be referred immediately to their care services.
16-17 years and never been in care – under homelessness legislation these young people are categorised as having a priority need and so local authority housing departments have a duty of care for them. If deemed unintentionally homeless, these young people have a right to local authority housing department assessment and, if successful, a placement into statutory accommodation.
16-17 years and currently in care – if a young person is being looked after in care then they are termed an ‘Eligible Child’. This means that Social Services have the duty of care and should be contacted to arrange accommodation provision.
16-17 years that have been in care in the past – if the young person has been in care for a total of 13 weeks or more since they were 14 (including at a point at age 16 or 17) then they are categorised as being a ‘Relevant Child’ meaning that social services have responsibility for accommodation. Young people who have planned short term placements in care or have been returned home for over six months are not included in this legislation. If the young person does not fit these criteria then they are considered in the same way as a 16-17 year old who has never been in care (above).
18-21 years and left care – young people in this category are termed ‘Former Relevant Children’ and classed as having a priority need for accommodation which means that housing departments have responsibility to provide accommodation, at least temporarily.
18-21 years and never in care – unless there are circumstances that mean the person has a priority need (e.g. mental health, escaping domestic abuse) then people in this category are non-statutory homeless and need to access mainstream services.
As with other cases of statutory homeless people, if a young person is intentionally homeless then they will only be offered 28 days emergency accommodation.
Services should work to prevent young people becoming homeless wherever possible. Where a young person is already sleeping rough, he/she should be encouraged away from the streets as soon as possible. Both a young person’s support and accommodation needs should be identified to help prevent homelessness and entrenchment in the future.
In many cases, young people rough sleeping are doing so due to disagreements with family members; talking and encouraging a return to their families may be sufficient to aid their movement away from the street. Mediation services can help to rebuild family connections when a young person does not return home immediately and also prevent future homelessness. In cases of domestic abuse, this approach should not be used.
Highlighting the realities of living on the street and in temporary accommodation to the young person may also encourage movement back to their families. This does not mean they should never look to leaving home, but that it should be a planned move to maintain a stable, long term tenancy.
It is good practice to work closely with social services and inform them of any young rough sleepers – especially where there are concerns over the young person’s well being (e.g. if they have been subjected to violence). The young person may have been involved with social services before and so contact may need to be reestablished.
If none of the above is suitable then emergency accommodation may need to be arranged on very short term basis. However, bed spaces and access to these may be limited.
If the housing department – rather than social services – has duty of care for the young person then the housing department will need to make an assessment to determine if their status is homeless, intentionally homeless or not homeless.
Back: Older rough sleepers | Next: Rough sleepers with no recourse to public funds