preventing & tackling youth homelessness
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Preventing & Tackling Youth Homelessness. Meeting Needs through Innovation and PbR : A Provider’s Perspective Rebecca Pritchard (former Youth Homelessness Specialist Adviser). About Kipper. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Preventing & Tackling Youth Homelessness
Meeting Needs through Innovation and PbR:A Provider’s Perspective
Rebecca Pritchard (former Youth Homelessness Specialist Adviser)
About KipperSmall, specialist local providers: 30+ years
experience of working with young homeless people in the East End
Supported housing offer – focused on enabling transitions to independence , Education, Training and Employment specialist support and mediation
Board support for innovation and informed risk taking in recognition of challenges and increasing pressures faced by young people which require new responses
ContextCuts in public expenditureYouth unemployment at its highest level in 20 years:
(Homeless Link “Young & Homeless 2013”; January 2014). Lack of affordable housing - increasing numbers of young
people remaining in childhood homes into their 30s – but not always feasible if overcrowding, poverty and violence an issue**
Local authority services increasingly focused on those where a statutory duty is owed, rather than addressing needs regardless of legal status
Welfare Reform High risk of financial exclusion if young people don’t
comply and engage with job seeker requirementsReduced options for young people in terms of move on
into PRS – greater competition; SAR & LHA caps reduce options**
Greater demand for smaller units for downsizing as a result of the spare room subsidy – reducing affordable move on
Homelessness Acceptances for Young People – to whom a statutory duty is owed
Cliff edgeHomeless 16- 17 year olds
Homeless 18 – 24 year olds
Anxiety & depression (52%) Involvement in crime/ ASB (39%) Substance misuse problem (37%) Exposed to violence in the home
(40%) Been on child protection register
(12%)(DCLG 2008)
Statutory responsibility to providehousing and support – Children’sServices and Housing
We don’t know, but...Needs and vulnerabilities
don’t disappear on 18th birthday
Research into entrenched rough sleepers found sofa surfing, street drinking, needs led offending, custodial sentences and IV drug use occurred between 18 – 21 years (DCLG 2012)
No statutory responsibility toprovide ( unless care leavers)
Multiply-excluded rough sleepers:
median age of first occurrence of common experiences
Experience Percentage
15 Used solvents, gas or glue 23% 17 Left local authority care 16% 17 Thrown out by parents/carers 36% 17 Had sex or engaged in sex act in exchange for money, drugs, etc. 10%
18 Involved in street drinking 53% 19 Used hard drugs 44% 20 Had a period in life when had six or more alcoholic drinks on a
daily basis 63%
20 Stayed with friends or relatives because had no home of own 77%
20 Shoplifted because needed things like food, drugs, alcohol or money for somewhere to stay
38%
20 Were a victim of violent crime (including domestic violence) 43%
21 Went to prison 46% 22 Had a period in life when very anxious or depressed 79%
22 Injected drugs 27% 26 Slept rough 77% 26 Admitted to hospital because of a mental health issue 29%
Fitzpatrick, S., Bramley, B. & Johnsen, S. Pathways into Multiple Exclusion Homelessness in Seven UK Cities, Urban Studies, 2013
Unmet needs and poor outcomes
In London, 719 people aged 18-25 were seen rough sleeping in the year to March 2013, compared with 624 in the previous year. http://www.broadwaylondon.org/CHAIN/Reports/StreettoHomeReports.html
Homelessness a risk factor for young people – leading to increased long term negative outcomes: poor emotional/ mental health (BMA 2003); lower academic achievement; increased risk of insecure low paid jobs or unemployment; long term homelessness (Shelter 2006).
1. Minimise Demand: Education
work in schools /other
places on reality of housing choices
2. Reduce Demand &
CrisisEarly
intervention targeted to keep young
people in family network
3. Reduce/ Avert Crisis
Plan & prepare with those at
risk of homelessness BEFORE they are in crisis
4. Single Integrated Service
GatewayPrevention,
assessment of need, planning advice &
optionsAND access to other
services e.g. ETE & Job Centre
PlusRange of health
servicesLife skills
Benefits advice
5. Supported accommodation as a
starting point for those with higher needs or younger
age (16/17)6. Floating Support in
accommodation - likely to be shared in private rented
sector
8. Young person is ready to
make their next move with minimal/no
support and is positively
engaged in ETE
Steps 5-7 Young people can access 3 broad options
and move between them until they are ready to move
on.
7. Shared student style accommodation for those in
FE, employment or apprenticeship with “light
touch” support
Positive Pathways for Young People
Challenges to current models Pathways not always established/ gaps remainServices challenged to cater for all levels of
need/supervision required – not always able to meet the highest needs groups or flex outside service specifications
Re-tendering forcing a rush to the bottom? Loss of skills from the work-force...
Increasing levels of need and risk seen in the YP we work with, but pressure to reduce the length of stay for young people in - expected to do more with more complex young people in less time
Unrealistic expectations continue regarding housing options from YP – can lead to disengagement if housing the focus
Need for new responses?Traditional supported housing models - being tested by
greater complexity and risk profiles of young people:Complexity of needs – challenging behaviour, substance
misuse and related dealing, risk taking, vulnerability, communication difficulties
Gangs, history of violence Excluded from services – nowhere left to go...?
Return home – not always safe; may precipitate future crisis & rupture with family
Sofa surfing Adult homelessness services – not always suitable for YP Rough sleeping Offending – criminal justice system “accommodates”
Uncertain futures...Zac – 19 years olds; moved
into supported housing for young homeless people; suffered from drug induced psychosis; sectioned 3 times; set fire to flat; had to leave; older sister sent him home to family in Bangladesh; he returned but only option is large hostel for adult men...
Dave – 20 years old; had offending history and started drug dealing; not placed; left to sofa surf with “friends” and acquaintances...
Baz – 19 years old; vulnerable and immature; lacked insight into his behaviour and had history of assault; not placed – ended up in a 150 bed hostel for adult men with no young person focused support...
Fred – 21 years old; significant cocaine and cannabis use (£300+ per week); posed risk to other young people and self; not placed – struggled on at home until ended up in custody...
Need for creativityYoung people say its..The importance of the relationship‘Stickability’ of the key person/peoplePeople doing what they say they willWorkers being realistic and challengingBut also being positive even when it gets tough
Agencies say its…Small caseloadsPersonalised approachHighly skilled staffAccess to specialist therapeutic servicesAccess to affordable housingBeing creative Focusing on positives
Young Person
PreventionIntensive work to
enable YP to stay at home
Social CapitalProactively building support networks
and creating capital for the YP & whole
family
Psychosocial InterventionsCBT, coaching, counselling...
ReconnectionsFresh starts with
intensive resettlement
supportHousing FirstModels of intensive
support in s/c accommodation
Adding CapacityAdditional
support into existing services
Personalised Budgets & Brokerage Creative
responses enabled (safe & legal) to
achieve outcomes
Work FirstUnderwrite PRS
rent shortfalls for agreed period to establish YP in
work
Contingency Management
Incentivise engagement and
outcomes for the YP
Opportunities to
innovate
PbR Partnerships: Unlocking Potential -transforming outcomes for young people
Social Investors
enabling innovation &
flexibility
Providers
engagement expertise & creativity
Local Authorit
iesreferrals & pathways
YP