Housing Case Studies

Dean’s Story

Dean is 16 years old and was referred to us by his youth offending team worker. Dean was struggling to live with his family, where he was experiencing emotional and physical abuse. Dean disclosed this to his youth offending team worker, who tried to refer him to social services to obtain accommodation for him and referred him to the housing department. Unfortunately, social services were unwilling to assist and as a result, Dean spent a night in unsuitable bed & breakfast, which he found quite frightening.  We wrote to the local authority and threatened judicial review proceedings if social services did not provide Dean with suitable accommodation. Within 24 hours, the local authority agreed to provide Dean with accommodation and placed him in a suitable placement with support whilst they conducted an assessment of his needs to see how they could best look after Dean.

George's Story

George is 18 years old and is a client of the youth department at Lawrence & Co.  George has some mental health issues and has struggled to maintain stable accommodation due to this and his offending behaviour.  We were notified that George would be released from custody with only 24 hours notice and that he would be homeless upon his release. George has a history of being looked after by the local authority and because of this, he is entitled to ‘leaving care support’. This means that social services has to continue supporting George after the age of 18 until at least 21, which includes helping him access accommodation or providing accommodation where he has no other option. 

His criminal solicitor contacted the local authority and requested that they provide George with accommodation upon his release, whilst they supported him in accessing more long term accommodation. The local authority refused to support him. We then wrote to the local authority and set out on what basis accommodation should be provided to George. The local authority then agreed to accommodate him and had accommodation available for him on the day of his release.

Referrals

If you would like to refer a young person to any of our programmes please contact us directly.