Some Government policies aimed at meeting the needs of homeless young people may be inadvertently accelerating their descent into homelessness, according to new research. Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent, reports.
A study of the experiences of 40 homeless young people by researchers at Trinity College Dublin found that the sudden withdrawal of services for 18-25 year olds was causing particular problems.
"It is leaving many in an extremely vulnerable situation and can serve to further entrench them in homelessness," said Dr Paula Mayock of Trinity's Children's Research Centre, the report's co-author.
The study also found that many young people interviewed were known to various agencies of the State, such as youth homeless services and criminal justice system, from a young age and over a long period of time.
This pointed to failures with systems of State intervention at various junctures in children's and young people's lives, the study concluded.
The research, Lives in Crisis: Homeless Young People in Dublin, was written by Dr Mayock and Dr Eoin O'Sullivan, a lecturer in Trinity's school of social work and social policy.
The researchers found that young people did not suddenly become homeless. Instead, there were typically a range of risk factors that could be traced to childhood such as the death of a parent, family conflict, parental drug or alcohol misuse, or experience of violence or abuse.
Overall, however, the number of young homeless has been falling over the medium term with 495 young homeless people presenting to health authorities in 2004. This compares to 774 in 1999 and 588 in 2000.
One of the main pathways to youth homelessness was in coming out of the State care system. Sixteen of the 40 young people had a history of State care, such as foster care, residential care placements or a residential setting for young offenders.
Family instability was another major factor, with many young people reporting violence or conflict in the home or tension arising from the presence of a step-parent.
Almost one-quarter of the study's young people reported getting involved in behaviour which led to conflict in the home, such as drinking, drug-taking, getting into trouble at school or hanging around with troublemakers.
Regarding health problems, the report found that homeless young people over 17 were extremely vulnerable to ill-health including asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, poor nutrition as well as acquired injuries such as broken bones.
They also experienced poor emotional health. Levels of drug use were extremely high across the study's sample of young people and half were using heroin. Few, however, had got involved in this kind of drug use prior to leaving home.
The nature of hostel life, in which young people spent much of their time on the street, exposed them to drug and alcohol use and made them more likely to be exposed to bullying and intimidation.
What it's like to be young and homeless
• Christian (17) on how young homeless drift into a life of crime:
"It's a life of f***ing crime, that's it. It's like a big circle being in the hostel.... Because if you're homeless, right, you're kicked out at half-nine in the morning and you can't go in till eight o'clock. So you've that whole day to waste, do you know what I mean?... And in the hostel, you'd wake up with six people there. And they say, 'I'm going off robbing' and 'where are you going?' And you're automatically sucked in to the robbing business."
• Derek (15) on being rejected by his family:
"My mother brought me to a social worker... and she said: 'I don't want him, he's not my son.' And I felt upset. I went out looking for her and I couldn't find her. So they told me to hand myself in as homeless and they would put me through the out of hours. So I waited from 4pm to 12 midnight for someone to come out [to the Garda station] to pick me up."
• James (18) on the bullying and violence:
"I got smashed up in there [in a squat] by five blokes with bars. Cuts all over me head an' all after them beating me up in there. That's why I wouldn't stay there anymore."
• Extracts from Lives in Crisis: Homeless Young People in Dublinby Paula Mayock and Eoin O'Sullivan