Introduction
The housing needs of care leavers and other young people who leave
home early are well documented (Biehal and Wade 1996; Broad 1989; Ford et
al. 2002), as are the risk factors that contribute to youth homelessness in these
groups of young people (Jones 1995). Research findings indicate that housing is
widely recognised as a key priority for young people, being “the life area most
closely associated with mental well-being, outstripping the contribution made by
involvement in education and training” (Wade et al. 2006, p.203). Therefore
understanding what leads to successful housing outcomes and what is working
well, is key to supporting young people moving into independent living.
In the early 1980s, it was widely recognised that current legislation did not
go far enough to support young people leaving care, and many advocacy
agencies, supported by research evidence, campaigned for an overhaul of the
way young people were discharged from care (Save the Children 1995). This led
to a reinvigoration within policy of the concept of corporate parenting to
discourage local authorities from discharging young people so early, with many
practical implications for how to improve the housing situation for young people
leaving care.
Care leavers and other young people leaving home early are likely to
share a number of vulnerability factors, such as an unstable childhood, a history
of running away, family problems and lack of supportive social networks (Simon
and Owen 2006). It is important that research studies differentiate between care-
leavers and other young people in difficulty when examining their housing