Essay

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.