Scandal over advert reveals care leavers’ acute housing challenges

“It’s just awful,” says care campaigner Matthew Dalton about an advert for a one-bedroom flat in Manchester that stated ‘no care leavers’ should apply.

The advert, published by the Guinness Partnership, one of the UK’s largest social housing providers, has since been removed and an internal investigation launched, with the organisation saying it is “deeply sorry for any hurt and distress caused”.

Bosses add that those involved have been suspended.

• Housing association under fire over ‘no care leavers’ advert

Dalton, a mental health support worker, entered care as a teenager and says finding stable housing has been a challenge throughout his life (see box).

He says that his experiences show the need for politicians, housing providers and public services to “be more aware and mindful of care-experienced people”.

He calls for training for housing providers and property agencies to improve understanding around care experience, and backs Barnardo’s campaign for all local authorities to have a duty to act as a guarantor for their care leavers.

Experts, including Mark Riddell, the government’s adviser for care leavers, and Nicola Smith, Barnardo’s policy lead on children in and leaving care, say they have never seen a housing advert so blatantly dismissive of care leavers.

‘Huge challenges’

Although an extreme example, they say the advert highlights the “huge challenges” those with care experience face trying to find a home when they turn 18.

Smith, who leads on policy for children in care and care leavers at Barnardo’s, says Dalton’s story reflects those of other young people she works with, including one young man living in Plymouth who struggled to get any accommodation in the private sector because of not having a rent deposit or rent guarantor. The young person ended up living in unsuitable shared accommodation, Smith says.

“There were other tenants who got into trouble with the police, so he ended up feeling very unsafe and wanting to move out,” she explains. “As well as that, he had to leave his job because the commute was so hard.”

Smith adds that without compulsory duties on councils to provide deposits and act as a guarantor, more care-experienced people are likely to be in a similar position, particularly with more private landlords exiting the rental market due to rising interest rates.

Positive practice

Dalton says that he has never been offered the opportunity for a local authority to act as a guarantor on his behalf, noting: “I’ve asked before and it’s always a no.” However, both Smith and Riddell highlight a rental support scheme by Kent County Council (see box) as an example of positive practice.

They both describe such schemes as “relatively low cost and low risk” to councils when the right support is put in place to allow care leavers to live independently.

“In some places it’s saving councils money, because otherwise you end up with high proportions of this group living in temporary accommodation or presenting as homeless because they can’t find properties,” Smith adds.

However, both Smith and Riddell accept that due to the financial crisis hitting local authorities, setting up such schemes would require significant government funding.

“We need to introduce legislation around corporate parenting duties to make it stronger so that we can begin to name public bodies who should have those duties and hopefully that can include providers. I’m hoping to consult among other things before we get that into legislation,” Riddell adds.

Staying Put arrangements

In addition, he backs calls made by Care Review chair Josh MacAlister, in his final report to government, for Staying Put arrangements – where a young person can remain in foster care until 21 – to be extended to 25.

“We also don’t want to be making our young people homeless just because they are not tenancy ready,” he says.

Ending this so-called “care cliff” is also backed by Katharine Sacks-Jones, the chief executive of care charity Become.

“We’re seeing one in three young people leaving care becoming homeless within two years of leaving the care system,” she says.

“There needs to be major measures, that are properly funded, put in place to resolve this – a part of that is around improving access to the private rental sector but there is also work to be done to end the care cliff and help young people to stay connected to their foster carers and residential homes longer.

“This would help to make that transition [into independent living] less abrupt alongside consistent support with rental deposit and guarantor schemes to support young people into rented accommodation.”

Discrimination

Turning back to the Guinness Partnership’s advert, Riddell describes the blatant exclusion of care leavers from applying as “an additional layer of discrimination and disadvantage” faced by those like Dalton struggling to find homes.

He adds that due to care experience not being listed as a protected characteristic in law, organisations not accepting tenants due to their care experience will face “very few consequences”.

The Care Review’s recommendation for care experience to be made a protected characteristic in law was not accepted by the government. Such a measure could act as a powerful deterrent to such discriminatory practices.

More than 100 local authorities have now passed motions to treat care as a protected characteristic in their policies and decisions. However, it is not yet certain whether these councils – and whoever forms the next government – will commit to supporting all care leavers to find a home when they leave local authority care.

Expert view: 'Ever since I've been renting, I've had to explain that I'm care experienced'

Campaigner Matthew Dalton, who works with care charity Become, was “kicked out” of the home he shared with a support worker on turning 18 “because you’re not in the care system anymore, you’re an adult and you have to find somewhere to live”.

“I had to move out because I couldn’t afford the two-bed flat [that I had been living in] and then it took me ages to find somewhere,” he says, explaining that his luck changed when he was able to get a deposit loan from his local authority.

He adds: “I’ve had periods of time where I’ve been unable to get those due to the cost of living, going to university and it not going to plan and having to leave, then finding it difficult to find somewhere to live because I don’t have a guarantor and am not earning enough money to be able to do it [without one].

“There’s been times where I’ve been homeless because I’ve been unable to find somewhere to live.”

After sofa surfing at a friend’s house – where a person is effectively homeless but staying with friends or relatives – Dalton managed to pull together the £6,700 needed to move into a Brighton flat.

“You had to either earn two-and-a-half times the rent a year or have a guarantor that is either a homeowner or earn several times that per year – if you don’t have that it’s six months’ rent upfront,” he says, adding that councils have always refused his requests to act as his guarantor.

Highlighting the stigma placed on care leavers when they are forced to explain their backgrounds to landlords and property agencies, Dalton adds: “Ever since I’ve been renting, I’ve always had to explain that [I’m care experienced] because [landlords] ask, ‘if you don’t earn over a certain amount, can your parents be a guarantor?’ I have to say ‘I don’t have any, I left home when I was 15’. Then you’re told, ‘well, you don’t have a guarantor, you can’t move in’.”

He says that such barriers around the need for a guarantor to secure property impacted his younger brother’s university experience when he decided to look for a house with friends during his second year of studying.

“He was the only one in his group of friends that couldn’t live in this house because he couldn’t get a guarantor,” says Dalton. “I wasn’t able to be a guarantor because I don’t meet the criteria.

“He missed out on that whole experience – not being able to spend that year with the rest of your friendship group or being able to build those memories and maintain those relationships – from a background point of view, from someone that’s been in care, that’s something that you’ve always had to do.”

Good practice: Kent's rent deposits scheme

Kent County Council has a rent deposit and rent guarantor scheme that can be accessed by care leavers, enabling them to seek housing in the private rented sector.

Care leavers must be in employment or in higher education to ensure they can afford to pay the rent to be eligible for the scheme, according to the council’s website.

It states that the scheme is available for those aged 18-25 and will cease on their 25th birthday.

To access the scheme, care leavers will need to show they can manage the rent payments and not get into debt, it adds.

Personal advisors must also be notified of any changes to a young person’s financial circumstances that impact rent payments.

“Once you turn 25, you will be responsible for all of your rent payments as the corporate rent guarantor scheme will end at this point,” the website advises.