Hidden Homeless

Whats the largest concert you've been to? Or is there a sport you love? Football? If your English, your mind probably jumps to Wembley. You would be right, its pretty large, 90,000 seats. If you American, well you have lots of big stadium's and you might think of MetLife, which amazingly is smaller than Wembley at 82,500. Your actual biggest stadium belongs to the Michagan Wolverines, at 107,601 (that last person was lucky to sneak in!). However the largest stadium in the world is home to the Indian National Cricket Team at a whopping 132,000 seats.

That's a lot of people, and if you have ever been in one of those crowds, you might remember the buzz of all those voices raised in one war cry for their team, of that many people singing the national anthem, or being part of a collective celebration. You feel tiny, in a huge crowd, and you feed off each other in an almost sinister collective way. A Mexican wave I've always found quite surreal as you watch it go round on the other side of the stadium, almost dehumanising, as we all collectively become drones to create this ripple effect.

My point is, you may have felt what 90,000+ people is like. Will it also shock you if I told you that there is only one stadium in the whole entire world that would be able to seat the entire population of homeless young people in England. The second largest stadium in the world would leave 7,000 homeless young people standing.

Of course I am wrong, those are just the young people who have:

1. Known that they can ask for help

2. Sought help to the correct place, (in the UK that's the council)

If anyone could gather an actual figure, I dread to think how big the stadium would have to be. Further more its estimated that 25% of these young people are care leavers. For those who do not know what that means, let me explain.

A Care Leaver

If a child (that means anyone under 18) is no longer safe or able to remain with their parent/s and a suitable guardian cannot be found within the family, quite simply they are given new parents. i don't mean adoption. This child's parents officially become the government. They get corporate parents. They are then known as a Child Looked After (CLA)

brace for more statistics

Each year 10,000 young people leave care when they turn 18. At this point they stop being a Child Looked After and start being refered to as 'A Care Leaver'. This is in England. So if you are Mr Johnson, you have just watched 10,000 of your children's fly the nest. lovely. However there are still a lot still in your care Mr Johnson, around 80,000 in fact. That's a lot of children, and ALOT of 18 year olds, who now have no parent's (don't get me wrong, there are lots of people to turn to and they are not just pushed out the door with a fiver to fend for themselves, im actually very proud of my country in how we look after our people)

The point is, these young people have not had an easy ride, as otherwise they would not be in this position. If you want more statistics ill leave them at the bottom. I don't want to bore you.

So why am I telling you this. I'm telling you because my heart breaks. When a baby is born, it has no idea the trials it will face, and sometimes those start from day 1. There are children born to heroin addicts who are described as 'clucking'. This is when a baby is withdrawing from a substance they never chose to take, my advise is not to google this, as you will get some horrific YouTube video's. Some baby's are removed within days or weeks from their parents (take a moment to think about the trauma for that baby, weather its the right decision or not, that's their mother who is the only person they have known for 9 months). Some children are removed as toddlers, or children, or sometimes even as teenagers. Some teenagers ask to sign themselves into care because that reality is better for them. There is not a child I have met who I would say is better off as a ward of the state than in a loving family home.

I'm not bashing Children's Social Care. I wouldn't want their job, and they are good people, with big hearts, who are unfairly nicknamed baby snatchers. They have to have hideous conversations, make hard decisions, and are not thanked for it. However they are not real parent's.

A parent is your Dad who is one day, going to walk you down the Aisle and dance with you on your wedding day. A Mum who is going to help you through your first period. A Dad who is going to cheer at the sidelines of every football match you play however shit you are. A Mum who is going to braid your hair. A Dad who is going to sit your boyfriend down for 'the talk'. A Mum who is going to one day become your best friend. A Dad who is going to teach you to ride a bike. Think about your best Mum or Dad experience, I'm almost certain it will involve a moment where you felt loved and that your parent was enjoying loving you. No Social Worker, however good they are, can replicate that feeling.

These kids don't have any of those defining moments, when your a Child Looked After, you have meetings to decide what the best next steps are, computers that tell your Social Worker when your last dentist appointment was, and a Social Worker who has to write down what you say to prove to their manager that they are listening to you. And if you want to learn to play guitar, you can't badger your Dad for weeks to pay for lessons, your Social Worker will ask if there is funding for you to be able to join in with your friends.

Its not ideal, but we as a nation do the best we can, and are still making steps to improve. Thank you Children's Social Care, and thank you tax payers for continuing to fund this service.

Hidden and Homeless

Now, when these 10,000 young people leave care every year, so many of them are too traumatised, angry or hurting to engage in the support they need. They need it, but they don't always want it at the time. Did you want to be sat in counselling sessions at 18? or did you want to be out partying with your friends? A lot of them become homeless. Some of them (a lot of them) join the ranks of other young people who have been kicked out of home, maybe missed by the system, or maybe things have gone downhill at home in the teenage years and 18 is a good kick out time.

If I were 16,17 or 18 and homeless, I wouldn't go to the council. I wouldn't know where it was to start with, I wouldn't know who to talk to, I wouldn't know I could even go there. I would go to my mate's house, and I would stay there on good will from her Mum. When good will runs out, I would find another mates house to stay at. And so we get a sofa surfing population.

Did you know, at 16 you can legally rent a property. So lets take Timmy, Timmy is 16 and homeless. Timmy hasn't been in care, so he can't even fall back on his Social Worker. So even if Timmy at 16 had a job, Timmy couldn't get a roof over his head. At 18, Timmy can go and rent a flat. That's great! however Timmy is supposed to still be in education, so Timmy isn't holding down a full time job. Don't worry I hear you say, there's a benefit system (and a bloody good one at that, that isn't sarcasm either. However I'm not going to get into justifying my views on our Benefits system in the UK) so Timmy can go and claim something called universal credit. This will give Timmy £251 per month, PLUS, he will get an amount which is based on something called the local housing allowance. Now this allowance fluctuates based on which area you are living in. I just did a quick search based on my old postcode in London. In South East London an 18 year old can get an additional £118.87 per week to pay rent. Great! (that one was sarcasm). Now google properties to rent in SE8 (that's a London post code if your not in the UK). I havn't even done it myself as I'm confident in what the search bar will say. Zero properties for your budget. This is before, remember, paying a deposit, first months rent in advance, and estate agent fees. Who had that kinda cash lying around at 18? Come on, hands up? now if you said yes, where did it come from, and do you think Timmy could have also found enough to pay his deposit?

So Timmy is homeless, sofa surfing, no one knows about him other than Karen (best mates Mum). Karen doesn't know what to do, its a bit awkward, because Karen is thinking about what happens when her Son decides to go to Uni, or move out with his girlfriend, where does Timmy go? Timmy isn't thinking too much (because he is 18) and Timmy is just glad someone is being nice to him, and living in the moment as we all did at that age. Timmy assumes it will all be alright in the end.

Timmy doesn't register on anyone's radar, in any statistic, or is even noticeable as homeless, because Karen is going to make sure he has food, and a sofa to sleep on, at least for now anyway.

I work in an organisation who is set up to get these young people, and to take a 3rd world metaphor and impose it upon this 1st world country. We don't give out fish, like Karen is (and again, we all love the Karen's of this world, they are decent, honest caring people) but we teach these young people to fish.

We instil lessons of independence, adulthood, harsh realities of the world, but we also love, care for, listen to and act as a safety net when things all go wrong.

The majority of the young people who live in the project I work in are victims of some sort. rape, violence, financial, emotional or physical abuse, neglect. I'm going to sum up some of their stories in 1 or two lines for you

1. Grew up in England, had to learn to steal food when she was 6 as Mum was going to spend all the money on heroin every day. was picked up by the care system at 15.

2. Cant read or write. was 'home schooled' except Mum was nomadic and mentally unwell. Had strange men in the house quite often and would lock herself in a room in whatever house she found herself in with the biggest stick she could find. Has memories of this since she was 8

3. was adopted, twice, at 3 months and then 12 months, both times it failed. Both times went back into care. Has been in 40+ foster care placements, none of which have worked, sometimes because the carer retired, sometimes there were too many kids and some had to go, sometimes because they were bullied.

4. both parents died within 3 months of each other, he was put into care as no other relative could take him. Was offered grief counselling, told me he was too sad to talk about it.

5. sexually abused by Dad her whole life until she was old enough to realise she could run away. Was told she was a naughty for running away all the time, until adults around her realised something was not right.

I could go on. All of these are young people who have grown up in the very town that they are now living in but in supported housing.

In my job, I talk to a lot of people. You would not believe the harsh words I've heard said about these young people. here are some quotes

'why is your project here, why didn't you build it out in the countryside where they won't bother anyone?'

'why do you let them out? don't you lock them in their rooms?'

'they are all criminal's and you have brought them all down here from the big cities, we don't want them here'

'there was a window smashed down town, it must have been one of your lot'

It takes every ounce of my strength to not argue with these people. As I understand that they are scared, or that they don't understand. However these young people are part of the community too. The difference is that they have not had an easy start in life, and almost daily, I get an e-mail or a phone call from a 16-21 year old who says to me 'help I'm homeless can I come and live there?' and I have to say 'I'm sorry we are full'. These young people are not to be feared, or pitied I add. They don't need fish, they need to be taught how to use a fishing rod.

Why am I telling you this? I'm not quite sure to be honest. However I think that when I think back to that stadium, where you hear the roar of 90,000+ people. I think of that collective voice, raised and united with purpose. Then I think of these 121,000+ young people, who are homeless, some hidden, and most without a voice at all.

Statistics

Care leavers make up 25% of the homeless population.

Almost 25% of the adult prison population have previously been in care, and nearly 50% of under 21-year-olds in contact with the criminal justice system had spent time in care.

39% of care leavers aged 19-21 years were known not to be in education, employment, or training (NEET), compared to around 13% of all 19- to 21-year-old

in 2019-202: 64% of 16-24 year olds, who were homless or at risk of homlessness were offered support by the council. 58% of the cases that were taken by the council were not successful in preventing homelessness.

In the USA, its estimated that 4.2 million young people between the ages of 13 and 25 experience homelessness at some point. 700,000 of these young people are unaccompanied minors (meaning they are like our care leavers or looked after children.

62% of homeless people (so not just young people here) are classed as 'hidden'

Thank you to:

Shelter, Crisis, Centerpoint, NCSL and The Office of National Statistics for some of the facts that I have pulled out.