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Your place, not mine: experiences of homeless people staying with family and friends
- Authors:
- ROBINSON David, COWARD Sarah
- Publishers:
- Crisis, Countryside Agency
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 66p.
- Place of publication:
- London
There are as many as 380,000 hidden homeless people in Great Britain, the majority of whom are sleeping on friends and family’s floors. Although their existence is widely acknowledged, their plight is rarely tackled. Part of the reason for this is the lack of knowledge surrounding the nature of their experiences and the extent of their vulnerability. The report casts light on the incidence and experiences of people staying with family and friends in response to homelessness. The report draws on evidence generated through a survey of 164 homeless people in three case study areas (London, Sheffield and Craven, North Yorkshire). Women were found to be more likely to only ever stay with a friend or relative while homeless and certain minority ethnic groups also appear more likely to stay with a friend or relative. Homeless people who stay with a friend or relative have a younger age profile than other homeless people and the majority are single. One in four homeless people staying with a friend or relative are in employment. People staying with family or friends experience personal problems and challenges typical of the problems apparent within the wider homeless population, including experience of time spent in local authority care as a child, time spent in prison or a young offenders’ institute, problems with drug and/or alcohol use, mental and physical health problems and learning difficulties, although the profile and experiences of homeless people staying with family and friends were found to vary between the case study areas.