multiple exclusion and risk behaviour as a pathway to homelessness

Multiple Exclusion and Risk

Behaviour as a Pathway to

Homelessness

Dr Sarah Johnsen (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK)

Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:

key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness

8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic

Defining Multiple Exclusion Homelessness

People have experienced MEH if they have been ‘homeless’ (incl. experience of temporary/unsuitable accommodation as well as sleeping rough) and have also experienced at least one of the following:

• ‘institutional care’: prison, local authority care, mental health hospitals/wards

• ‘substance misuse’: drug, alcohol, solvent or gas misuse

• ‘street culture activities’: begging, street drinking, 'survival' shoplifting or sex work




Methods

• Large-scale survey in 7 cities: Belfast, Birmingham,

Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Westminster (London)

• Three stages:

1. Identification of all relevant ‘low threshold services’; random

selection of 6 in each city

2. ‘Census questionnaire’ survey of all service users over a 2 week

‘time window’ = 1,286 short questionnaires returned

3. ‘Extended interview’ survey with service users who had

experienced MEH = 452 interviews completed




Age and Gender Profile




0

50

100

150

200

250

16-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+

Nu

mb

er

of

resp

on

den

ts

Age (years)

Male

Female

Overlap of Experiences




Source: census survey

Prevalence of MEH

Experiences

• Most prevalent (over ½ sample) - all forms of homelessness; MH

problems; alcohol problems; street drinking

• Medium prevalence (between ¼ and ½ sample) - prison; hard

drugs; divorce; victim of violent crime; survival shoplifting; thrown out;

begged; admitted to hospital because of a MH issue; injected drugs;

eviction.

• Least prevalent (less than ¼ sample) - redundancy; solvents etc.;

LA care; partner died; sex work; repossession; bankruptcy




Focusing on Young People (1)

In comparison to people aged 25+, those under 25 are... • More likely to have:

• Been in care

• Been thrown out by parents/carers

• Self-harmed

• Less likely to have:

• Slept rough

• Serious alcohol problem

• Injected drugs

• Begged

• Been in prison

• Divorced/separated

• Been made redundant




Focusing on Young People (2)

Despite having less time to ‘accrue’ MEH experiences,

under 25s are just as likely as 25+s to have:

• Sofa surfed or stayed in hostels / other temporary accommodation

for homeless people

• Used hard drugs (e.g. crack cocaine) or abused solvents/gas/glue

• Been very anxious or depressed or admitted to hospital for a mental

health problem

• Been involved in ‘survival’ shoplifting or sex work

• Been a victim or perpetrator of violent crime

• Attempted suicide

Clusters of Experience

1. ‘Mainly homelessness’ (24%) = least complex (5 experiences on average); male + over 35; migrants; Westminster

2. ‘Homelessness + MH’ (28%) = moderate complexity (avg. 9 experiences); disproportionately female

3. ‘Homelessness, MH + victimisation’ (9%) = much more complex (avg. 15 experiences); suicide attempts, self-harm; victim of violence; LA care and prison; younger than average

4. ‘Homelessness + street drinking’ (14%) = moderate complexity (avg. 11 experiences); high levels of rough sleeping + street culture; male + over 35; Glasgow

5. ‘Homelessness + hard drugs’ (25%) = most complex (avg. 16 experiences); very high across all domains, especially substance misuse and street culture; most in their 30s

Age of First Experience

Experience Average age of first

occurrence

Abused solvents, gas or glue 15

Left local authority care 17

Thrown out by parents/carers 17

Survival sex work 17

Involved in street drinking 18

Used hard drugs 19

Drank 6+ alcoholic drinks on a daily basis 20

Sofa surfed 20

Survival shoplifting 20

Victim of violent crime (incl. DV) 20

Went to prison 21

Very anxious or depressed 22

Injected drugs 22

Individual Sequences

Four broad phases in individual pathways:

• Early: solvents etc., leaving home/care, drugs/alcohol

• Early-middle: MH problems, survival shoplifting, survival

prostitution, victim of violence, sofa-surfing, prison, redundancy

• Middle-late: sleeping rough, begging, injecting drug use, admitted to

hospital with MH issue, divorce, bankruptcy

• Late: hostels/TA etc., applying as homeless, eviction, repossession,

death of a partner

These were generally consistent across all five clusters

Conclusions / Implications

• The fact that young people feature in the MEH population at all is a

serious cause for concern; esp. given proportion reporting extreme

(and often multiple) forms of exclusion/distress

• Some of the symptoms of MEH typically become evident in mid/late

teenage years or shortly thereafter (e.g. solvent/drug/alcohol abuse,

survivalist shoplifting or sex work, sofa surfing)

• Preventative interventions need to focus on earlier signs of distress,

given that ‘visible’ homelessness is often a comparatively ‘late’ sign

of deep exclusion

• Need to co-ordinate responses across all aspects of individuals’

lives, rather than view them through separate professional ‘lenses’

(e.g. homelessness, substance misuse, criminal justice etc.)

Briefing Papers

1. Fitzpatrick, S., Bramley, G. & Johnsen, S. (2012) Multiple Exclusion

Homelessness in the UK: an overview of findings: Briefing Paper

no. 1 (Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University).

2. Fitzpatrick, S., Johnsen, S. & Bramley, G. (2012) Multiple Exclusion

Homelessness in the UK: migrants: Briefing Paper no. 2

(Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University).

3. Johnsen, S. & Fitzpatrick, S. (2012) Multiple Exclusion

Homelessness in the UK: ex-service personnel: Briefing Paper no.

3 (Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University).

All are downloadable (free of charge) from:

www.sbe.hw.ac.uk/research/ihurer/homelessness-social-

exclusion/multiple-exclusion-homelessness.htm

http://www.sbe.hw.ac.uk/research/ihurer/homelessness-social-exclusion/multiple-exclusion-homelessness.htm









Academic Papers

Fitzpatrick, S., Bramley, G. & Johnsen, S. (2013) Pathways into

multiple exclusion homelessness in seven UK cities, Urban Studies,

50(1), pp. 148-168.

Fitzpatrick, S., Johnsen, S. & Bramley, G. (2012) Multiple Exclusion

Homelessness amongst migrants in the UK, European Journal of

Homelessness, 6(1), pp. 31-58.

Fitzpatrick, S., Johnsen, S. & White, M. (2011) Multiple exclusion

homelessness in the UK: key patterns and intersections, Social

Policy and Society, 10(4), pp. 501-512.

multiple exclusion and risk behaviour as a pathway to homelessness

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