Homeless 16-year-old forced to live in a tent for nine months

Since the landmark Southwark judgment ruling in 2009, local authorities have been required to offer all homeless 16- and 17-year-olds care services under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989.

But Kent failed to assess the teenager as a child in need and accommodate him and Dover failed to accept him as homeless, provide suitable temporary accommodation, or contact Kent children’s services about his case.

The young man, identified only as “J”, had been taken into care by Kent County Council and placed with foster parents as a younger teenager.

He was returned to his birth mother, but became homeless when she threw him out for objecting to her relationship with an intravenous drug user.

The young man applied for housing to Dover council but was turned away. A local youth centre manager contacted Kent children’s services three times to tell them about J’s circumstances, but Kent made no record of the calls and did nothing about the boy’s case for six months.

The teenager suffered physical and mental ill health during the nine months he spent sleeping in a tent, sometimes in snow. His tent was vandalised and his feet were frequently wet, whilst he suffered back pain, lost a significant amount of weight and developed a chest infection.

Although Dover would not accept him as homeless, the council offered him bed and breakfast accommodation, but he refused it because he was worried it was in an area where he would be tempted into drugs or crime.

Under pressure from a neighbourhood police officer, the youth offending service, the YMCA and a local drug and alcohol service, Dover council eventually offered J another flat.

But Dover then demanded an adult guarantor for the tenancy and initially refused to accept a £1,000 guarantee from Kent children’s services until threatened with legal action.

The ombudsman Anne Seex ordered Kent and Dover councils to apologise to the young man and to pay him £10,100 compensation for the catalogue of “inexcusable” errors.

She also ordered the councils to make sure that their staff understand and apply policies for homeless young people aged between 16 and 21. Kent will meanwhile be required to provide leaving care services to the boy until the age of 21.

Seex said: “These failures are inexcusable. They happened after important court rulings had clarified the roles and responsibilities that housing authorities and children’s services authorities have to homeless children of 16 and 17.

"J was remarkably determined and resilient in the face of crushingly difficult circumstances and was well supported by the youth centre. The failures of the two councils could have easily tipped him into a spiral of drug use and crime."

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb, warned that councils are continuing to fail many homeless 16- and 17-year-olds that approach them for help.

“Today’s report highlights how vital it is that local authorities comply with their legal responsibility to implement effective joint protocols for assisting homeless 16- and 17-year-olds ,” he said.

“Without this, vulnerable young people can end up falling through the cracks between children’s services and housing departments, leaving them out on the streets.”