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30 MAY 2008
NO 1303
Homeless children
Around the world, the homeless are numbered in tens of millions. Families are born, live and die on the streets of the vast cities of the third world. Thousands of abandoned children survive in the underground heating tunnels beneath Bucharest and other cities of the collapsed communist economies. Gangs of street children in Brazil maintain themselves by theft and prostitution, and are culled by legally-tolerated death squads (Scanlon et al. 1998). In Hong Kong, old people live in `caged houses', locking themselves in with their remaining possessions. Even in the societies of western Europe and North America, prosperous citizens on their way to work see homeless people sleeping in the doorways of shops, keeping warm around heating ducts, and sheltering under the bridges which carry commuter trains to the cities. Their reaction mixes sympathy and fear, and these same emotions drive public policy. Public funds are allocated to provide temporary accommodation for people sleeping rough, and treatment for those with a mental illness or who misuse substances. But this is often combined with greater police powers to clear the streets and protect the public from the homeless.
Public policy in western Europe and North America has therefore been directed at the `visible homeless'. Less attention has been paid to the larger number of families and children who become homeless each year, and who are placed in homeless centres or other temporary accommodation provided by local authorities, or who double up with friends and family. This group is diverse, and the reasons that lead to homelessness are complex. Official definitions and policy documents in England usually adopt the statutory definition of `homelessness', corresponding to the group of individuals or families who are accepted as 'homeless' by local housing authorities. This excludes applicants deemed to have made themselves intentionally homeless, and several groups which are either not identified as priorities for rehousing, or which do not choose to apply to their local housing authority. These groups include single adult rough sleepers and hostel users not referred to local housing authorities; and other groups without stable housing, such as individuals or families doubling up, living in squats, or living as travellers (Williams and Avebury 1995).
Estimates of the number of homeless families and children therefore vary with the definition used. An analysis of official statistics (by Christina Victor, in Chapter 10 of this book) indicates that each year local housing authorities accept about 143,000 families as 'homeless', which include over 170,000 children. To this should be added up to 7000 teenagers living rough or living in hostels. There is a constant turnover in the homeless population, which means that substantially more children experience at least one episode of homelessness before adulthood.
The impact of homelessness on the lives of children and families has received limited attention, although several research studies summarised in this book have found that children in homeless families experience high rates of illness, injury, and distress. The very experience of living in temporary housing can place children at greater risk of accidents and illness, while cramped and transient living circumstances places a strain on family relationships.
The needs of homeless families have received limited attention from policy makers. Homelessness has been seen almost entirely as a housing problem, and there has been limited recognition of the overlaps between the population of homeless families and the populations of children at risk, of children with mental health problems, and of victims of domestic or neighbourhood violence.
STUART CUMELLA AND PANOS VOSTANIS
Cumella, S. and Vostanis, P. (1999). Introduction. In
Cumella, S. and Vostanis, P. (Eds.). Homeless children: Problems and
needs. London. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. pp. 7-8.
REFERENCES
Scanlon, T.; Tomkins, A.; Lynch, M. and Scanlon, F. (1998). Street children in Latin America. British Medical Journal, 316. pp.1596-1600
Williams, R. and Avebury, K. (Eds.). 1995). A Place in Mind: Commissioning and providing mental health services for people who are homeless. London. HMSO.
