Growing up in state care as a risk factor for homelessness

Ina Kreft Toman (2016) Growing up in state care as a risk factor for homelessness. MSc thesis.

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Abstract

Research show that there are disproportional parts of those growing up in state care among the homeless. That leads us to the necessary question of how those two phenomenon are interlinked. In theoretical part both are defined and the research on both fields is presented. Children and youth are placed in out of family care also on grounds of their families being unsupportive of their development and growth. On the other side most of those youth when leaving care return to their families. For most young people today gaining independence is hard in the context of our society. There aren’t enough apartments for rental available and there aren’t enough jobs available for everyone, so many more young people are forced to stay with their parents into their late twenties. Youth care leavers are gaining independence earlier than peers, usually around their turning of full age. Research shows that they are less healthy, have more mental issues, are more prone to experience homelessness and are more often receivers of financial aid as their peers. Programs in place today don’t offer the solutions to current issues of this group in need of special aid during their transition from out of family care into independence. Programs for care leavers vary from one institution to another and are based on good will of those in charge. There is a lack of state led, systematically, financially and materially supported program. We hear eight different stories throughout interviews of people who have experienced both out of family care and homelessness. At the same time those stories all tell us a joined tale of a place in between two forms of exclusion: out of family care as opposed to living at home as peers and homelessness when others are home owners.

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