Youth Hostels – the
way forward?
An investigation into
their practicality to clients
In recent years there
has been an increasing amount of young adults becoming homeless and requiring
supportive housing. The Joseph Rowntree foundation published a major review of
youth homelessness which indicated an annual number of around 75,000 young
people aged between 16 – 24 experienced some form of homelessness annually;
which suggests a significant youth homelessness problem in the UK. Supporting
People Client Records for 2009/10 showed a total of 49,275 young people in the
three most relevant client groups who received accommodation related support
services in England during the year:
·
Of the
65,162 single homeless people with support needs 30,335 (47%) were young people
aged 16 – 24
·
Of the
7,256 rough sleepers 782 (23%) were young people aged 16 – 24
·
18,158
were young people at risk
Throughout this project I will be
investigating whether these types of homes come with a negative stigma for
example all clients are drug users, commit crimes, cause trouble etc... I will
also be researching some of the reasons why young people are seeking supportive
housing and whether this type of accommodation is really the way forward for
these vulnerable young adults. My aims are to discover the advantages and
disadvantages of living in this type of accommodation, the view of the public
on hostels and to find whether clients sufficiently benefit from supported
housing.
I will be focusing my
project on a hostel based on the outskirts of Norwich city centre; Archway
Housing Project which offers generic support to young, vulnerable homeless
women and also offers support and housing to young vulnerable families. As I am
a client and do not want to offer my opinion to avoid bias results I will only
be focusing on 7 of the clients at Archway Housing Project providing I have
co-operation from all clients.
To find evidence to
answer my question I collected primary and secondary research. I used online
resources to find secondary research, for example celebrities who have lived in
hostels and to explain their stories and how successful they have become. I
also used a report off www.shelter.org.uk and found evidence as to why young people may
leave home. An extract from Trouble at Home; Family conflict, young people and
homelessness, crisis, 2001 by Randall G and Brown S who suggest that evidence
shows that family conflict is the main precipitating factor leading to
homelessness among under 18’s and it sometimes associated with physical or
sexual abuse. It is estimated, that for at least two thirds and possibly up to
90 per cent of homeless young people conflict with their families was the
immediate cause of their homelessness .For my primary research I created and
sent out surveys to clients of Archway Housing Project, staff and neighbours in
hope to gain their opinion on Archway Housing Project and to draw a conclusion
on the practicality of hostels. My secondary research although there was not a
great amount, allowed me to investigate positive and negative stories about
hostels.
I found this to be
very useful as I was able to show other people, including celebrities who once
lived in a hostel but managed to come out of the experience positively, for
example Adam Deacon who is now a famous actor. My primary research was probably the most
useful thing I used, I sent out questionnaires to every household down West
Parade where the hostel is located to get an idea of the neighbour’s opinion of
the hostel. The feedback I had was completely unexpected, it was extremely
positive and nearly all of the neighbour’s support the hostel. A lot of
feedback said there used to be a lot more trouble before Archway brought in a
night worker and clients have changed.
I then created an online survey for the staff
to take and put a polite notice in the office asking all staff to please
complete the survey. Results were similar to the neighbours and the general
feedback indicated that all staff liked working at Archway, found it beneficial
to clients and that the hostel was not troublesome as a result of hard work
from both staff and clients. I then created an online survey for clients of
Archway and sent them all a letter asking them to please complete the survey
and after a lot of asking and pestering all the clients completed the survey.
These can be found on my blog at http://emilyspencerepq.blogspot.co.uk/ . The general consensus was that the clients
liked living at Archway Housing Project; they found it beneficial to them
because it had given them a roof over their head and a stable home and most of
them wanted, once they left, to have their own flat and get a full time job. I
found this extremely useful and positive as it shows that society’s opinion of
clients living in hostels being benefit scroungers is proven to be incorrect.
For my artefact I
created a video that included a tour around Archway showing what it looked
like, an interview with two of the clients and an interview with one of the
staff members. Although I asked similar questions to the survey, I wanted to
interview a staff member so they could go into more detail. This worked really
well as I got really detailed answers and I could show that I actually
interviewed staff instead of just getting quantitative data, I was able to get
qualitative. As a result of wanting to video the hostel I had to wait a long
time for permission and timing; because it is the clients home there were days
when there were events happening and I could not film, this put me behind
because it’s my main artefact and I had no choice but to wait for a reasonable
time. After videoing the hostel and the interviews I used Premier Pro to edit
it and create a video. I had to edit the interviews a lot as some of the
clients made mistakes and I wanted the interview to just flow. I also put an
audio track whilst the hostel was being shown; I thought this was a good idea
as there wouldn’t be just silence. Originally I was going to use the track
‘second chance’ by shinedown, however after watching the video again I thought
it wasn’t suitable and decided to use the track ‘find no enemy’ by Akala, I
thought this was a good choice as the lyrics are meaningful and fit nicely into
my chosen topic. My final product was
converted into a video and put onto YouTube. I think it represents Archway in a
good way, as there is a tour around the building, there’s interviews with
clients and staff. However, to improve it I would have liked to show one of the
clients’ rooms, however none of the clients were willing to let me film their
room.
Overall I think my
project went well, I think because I chose a hostel to base my project on it
made something’s difficult such as timing and participation. However I am
pleased with my overall project because I think I sufficiently investigated
clients’, staff and neighbours views on the hostel and managed to show how the
hostel is beneficial to clients.
I also managed to make
a conclusion on all my findings, I believe that the hostel is beneficial to
clients but it depends on the individual to seek and accept as much support as
they need. If clients are not willing to engage with staff then there is not a
lot the staff can do. I believe that it is down to the individual, although not
their fault they have no other option but to live in a hostel it is their
choice to make a change and create a future for themselves.
