When Going Home is not an Option

"The first time is the hardest, afterwards nothing matters anymore. I remember that it started to rain, so I laid down in some house’s backyard and covered my head as I could."

Youth Poverty Across the European Union

Robert, who asked to be identified only by his first name and is now 29, recounts the story when, more than ten years ago, he spent his first night on the streets of Berlin.

His story is not exceptional. According to data collected by Eurostat, one in every five (20%) young adults aged between 16 and 24 was at risk of poverty in the EU-27 in 2007. The EU measures poverty using relative income poverty lines, which are set to below 60% of the median income. Therefore, people living with an income under this figure struggle daily to live a normal life and participate in ordinary economic, social and cultural activities.

Poverty is, however, a complex problem. For this reason, many times the relative poverty lines fail to take into account the reality of people living in poverty. For example, youth poverty finds its causes not only in a shortage of affordable, adequate housing, ramping youth unemployment or a lack of educational opportunities.

“Youth homelessness can have emotional, social and psychological causes too,” said Suzannah Young, Communication Officer at the European Federation of National Organisations Working with Homeless People. For example, a number of people can become homeless because of family breakdown or as a result of abuse.

Robert spent four months on the streets after his father kicked him out of home just before turning 18. Later, he dropped out from school. At first, he stayed at his friend’s places, but eventually he found himself with nowhere to go. Despite the possibility of entering a shelter for the homeless, he preferred to live on the street than to give away his independence. “The reason why young people become homeless is because they want to be independent, move away from their parents,” he argued.

Dr. Susanne Gerull, a professor specialised in poverty issues at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, said in an interview for TheBeginner.eu that this search for independence can be sometimes in direct confrontation with the way social services work. This is especially true in Germany due to the fracture that exists between childcare and regular homeless services, which can be detrimental to teenagers who just turn 18 and can’t go to childcare anymore.

On the other hand, when young homeless people decide to seek assistance, what they see may lead to a disappointment with the system. Robert was surprised to find that almost exclusively “50 year old guys” occupied the shelter where he went once. He thought that he “didn’t belong there” and thus decided to leave. He then went to sleep in parks, old cars or outside doorways. This pattern is ubiquitously found in the lifestyle of the young homeless. A 2010 report by the Combating Youth Homelessness Project states that young people are a minority of the homeless because older people, especially men aged from 25 to 45, are involved in most street homeless situations and services.

Young people in Europe who wish to leave their family home often face serious challenges. There is in fact a tangible uncertainty for young people who wish to become independent. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated that in all EU countries except Ireland and the southern European countries, not living in the parental home was by far the most powerful predictor for being poor and for entering poverty. In the UK, for example, young people who have left home are 24 percentage points more likely to be poor than those of a similar age who still live at home.

For individuals at the very start of the transition to adulthood, the factors associated with youth poverty are similar to those associated with child poverty: the majority have no income of their own and their risk of poverty is largely dependant on the incomes of adult members of their households. This is why, in the framework of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, organisations such as FEANTSA have set the goal that no young people should become homeless as a result of the transition to independent living.

A recent report by Eurostat pointed out that the main reason for young adults from the EU-27 living in their parents’ homes longer than they used to is because they cannot afford to move out (45%) or cannot locate affordable housing (29%). People who do move out from their parents’ places have a serious risk of falling into poverty and facing financial hardship, especially when their parents cannot or will not assist them.

"For many young people living in poor families, independent living simply isn’t an option – due to a lack of sufficient independent income to allow them to pay for separate housing, food and other services and lack of access to quality jobs and services,” said Sian Jones, of the European Anti-Poverty Network.

A job plays a role in keeping young people out of poverty, but only in the longer term. In fact, in most countries it takes more than one year for the effects of employment to be realised. According to the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation a young person who has just found a job has no higher chance of exiting poverty than a young person with no job at all. Therefore, to lift young people out of poverty, it is not just employment that is needed, but stable and long-term employment. Thus, "for young people who do go through period of poverty, escaping from poverty may not be as simple a matter as (for example) leaving college and getting a job– rather, it may involve a much more protracted process,” notes the report.

Part of the solution "consists in recognising the vulnerability of young people to homelessness and accepting that they have specific needs, different from those of homeless adults,” said Ms. Young of FEANTSA. "It is also necessary a commitment coming from those making policy decisions. It should be the responsibility of national and local government, and of the European institutions, as part of comprehensive homeless strategies,” Ms. Young wrote in an email.

In Germany, for example, social workers dealing with the homeless are often invited to discuss with politicians before taking any decision that might affect their field, as they are part of an organised lobby. "They don’t like us, but they have to listen to us,” said Ms. Garull. Some other countries, such as Ireland, have developed specific Youth Homelessness strategies, where local health authorities have a legal duty to promote the wellbeing of children in their area who do not receive adequate care and attention. "Since poverty is a structural problem, it should be tackled structurally by reducing inequality and guaranteed access to housing, regardless of age,” said Ms. Jones, of the EAPN.

"I actually finished school two years ago and now I am about to study at University,” Robert said, visibly proud of the achievement. As he demonstrates, living on the streets does not determine your future, but for millions of young people across the EU it is a risk worth preventing.

by Tanit Parada Tur

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