Mark Liddiard

Homeless Young People and Runaways—Agency Definitions and Processes

This article looks at the problems of youth homelessness and running away, and analyses how the agencies who deal with these problems define them. Based on extensive research material, it presents three main findings. It illustrates that agencies appear to present the problems with which they deal to an outside audience, externally , in a number of different ways and that these statements do not depend solely on the characteristics of their clients. Instead, they also reflect the structure, purpose and resources of the involved agencies themselves. Additionally, however, agencies also appear to categorise their potential clients internally , in terms of who they can and cannot assist. To help reach these decisions, many of these organisations use a set of classifications linked to whether or not they perceive their potential clients to be deserving or undeserving. The paper concludes with the recognition that these labels are not in any way fixed. Rather, there are identifiable processes involved in these classifications.

The Construction of Other Social Issues

This book is ostensibly concerned with the social problem of youth homelessness, and yet in this chapter we consider three quite different social issues — AIDS, child abuse and domestic violence against women. Why is a chapter about these issues included in a book about youth homelessness? In short, we are introducing these three themes to highlight some of the common elements that can be found in all social welfare issues. We have already seen how youth homelessness is variously interpreted and presented by different categories of people, such as the media, agencies, politicians, academics and by young homeless people themselves. We have also considered in relation to youth homelessness the importance of definition, measurement and explanation, as well as setting out the range of suggested solutions. We will now show how three quite different issues can usefully be considered from a similar perspective. In this way, we hope to illustrate that many of the observations that we have made about the construction of youth homelessness as a social problem also apply to other social issues.

Defining and Measuring Youth Homelessness

The study of any social problem logically begins with a definition. However, if a social issue can mean different things to different people at different times and in different contexts, how can it be defined? In the first part of this chapter we examine and discuss some of the difficulties involved in defining a social problem such as youth homelessness. Understanding the complexities inherent in defining social issues is fundamental, not least because the way in which a social problem is defined directly affects how it is measured.

Solutions to Youth Homelessness

The solutions that are proposed to the problem of youth homelessness are varied. This is to be expected since the nature of the solution will depend on how youth homelessness is interpreted and by whom. We have seen throughout the book that different groups and individuals can perceive the same social issue in quite different ways, and thus it is not surprising that solutions should vary. For example, the solution offered will be closely linked with the explanation given, and in Chapter 3 we considered the variety of these explanations. At that stage, we did not link particular explanations with the different categories of people involved. In this chapter, though, we attempt to look more closely at how different groups perceive the solutions to youth homelessness. In particular, we address three broad questions: How do homelessness agencies perceive the solutions to youth homelessness? How do politicians perceive the solutions to youth homelessness? How do young homeless people perceive the solutions to youth homelessness?

Explaining Youth Homelessness

Once a social issue is defined, there is a need for it to be explained — for the explanation of the problem will determine the solution. In all countries, politicians, the media, homelessness agencies, academic commentators and young homeless people all seek to explain youth homelessness. Yet these categories of people do not always explain the issue in the same way. This chapter examines these various explanations. The first part of the chapter outlines the many issues that are introduced to explain youth homelessness. The second section looks beyond specific issues to the broader approaches taken to explain youth homelessness. Basically, there are usually two general perspectives adopted in explaining youth homelessness: a ‘structural’ approach and an ‘individual’ approach. However, this dichotomy is probably too crude, and instead a wider range of approaches has been suggested here. In summary, this chapter attempts to address two questions: What are the main issues raised when youth homelessness is explained? What range of approaches can be identified in explaining youth homelessness?

Young People’s Viewpoints

It is in this chapter that we show what it is like to be young and homeless. Throughout the chapter we are particularly concerned with young people’s own accounts of their homelessness. These are often used by the media and by agency workers, but are seldom considered in their own right. Moreover, young homeless people are often treated as an homogeneous group when, in reality, they have a wide range of experiences, which they express in a variety of ways. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to illustrate the diverse experiences of young people when they are homeless.

Youth Homelessness in Context

Homelessness has long shocked the public and concerned the authorities in many countries. That citizens should beg and live on the streets of states with welfare systems is a puzzle. That families and others should live for years in hostels or temporary accommodation contradicts the expectations and promises of western industrial economies. The homelessness of young people is, however, particularly shocking. Sleeping on the streets is the very opposite of what one expects to see provided for children and young people.

The Public Presentation of Youth Homelessness

Homelessness has long featured in the media. Vagrancy, for instance, was a topic of regular media interest throughout the nineteenth century, both in the UK and the USA (see Hoch 1987; Jones 1982). More recently, the British public was shocked in 1966 by Cathy Come Home, a drama documentary about a family becoming homeless and spending time in temporary accommodation (Rose 1988, p. 178). The public outrage after the programme even led to the issue being raised in Parliament. Similarly, a later drama documentary in 1975, Johnny Go Home, set out the risks facing a young man coming to London with nowhere to stay; a government Working Group was set up as a result of this (Beacock 1979, p. 131). After a lull in media coverage, youth homelessness returned to the UK headlines in the 1980s and 1990s, with young homeless people featuring in documentaries and even appearing as characters in soap operas and comedy series.