Housing insecurity and hidden homelessness: research

9 What are the turning points that prompt people to seek help from local authorities?

9.1 Introduction

This chapter explores the turning points in people’s lives that prompted them to approach the local authority for assistance, focusing particularly on what changed in their lives for them to find a route out of hidden homelessness. Interviews with people with lived experience, third sector participants, and people working in local authority homelessness services have informed the findings.

This chapter highlights five key turning points that prompt people to seek assistance from their local authority: changes in financial security; the risk posed to friends and family as a result of a person’s hidden homelessness; support from wider local authority or third sector services; changes relating to health and wellbeing; and the escalation of abuse and/or exploitation.

9.2 Changes in financial security

Some lived experience participants and third sector participants described how changes in financial security could prompt individuals to approach services for assistance. Examples included losing or gaining employment, which affected their access to regular income.

Several third sector participants noted that changes in employment circumstances could be both positive and negative turning points. For instance, some individuals moved into stable housing when they received a job offer that included accommodation as part of the employment package. On the other hand, a loss of employment often made precarious living conditions intolerable, pushing individuals to seek stable housing more urgently. One third sector participant recognised that even in situations where an employment offer included accommodation, this often only provided an individual with stable housing on a short-term basis. Once the season of work ended, people would often move back into their hidden circumstances. For some, the loss of a job made their already unstable housing situation unsustainable, prompting a more urgent need for stable accommodation and an approach to the local authority.

For a few lived experience participants in this research, finding and maintaining stable employment and a regular income helped them to move into stable accommodation in the private rented sector. Third sector participants and participants with lived experience gave examples of employers providing wage advancements to help employees secure privately rented tenancies. For example, one lived experience participant, who had experienced sofa surfing before securing private rented accommodation, reflected: ‘I was able to ask [my employer] for an extension on my wage to get it earlier so that I could pay for my rent, which in hindsight was great because I secured my tenancy.’

9.3 Risk to friends and family

Section 8.3.4 highlighted a fear of repercussions for friends and family as a barrier to approaching local authority services. On the other hand, this research also finds that the risk posed to friends and family as a result of a person’s hidden homelessness can also become a turning point for accessing support.

Some third sector participants and one lived experience participant highlighted that women experiencing domestic abuse would seek support once the escalation of abuse was a threat to their children. Section 9.5 provides further detail around the escalation of abuse as a turning point.

A few third sector participants suggested that some people were prompted to access homelessness assistance if there was a risk to their pet’s safety or if they faced the threat of being separated from their pet. For example, as one third sector participant recalled:

“A man [was] sleeping in his car with his two dogs and came to us because somebody had seen the dogs and reported it to the SSPCA, who had told me [they] basically had to be homeless dogs because he could not have the dogs sleeping in the car. So, that was why he then decided to access support because he didn't want to be [apart from] the dogs.”

9.4 Changes in health and wellbeing

Section 6.4 highlighted poor health and wellbeing as a route into homelessness. On the other hand, this research also finds that declining health sometimes acted as a catalyst for seeking homelessness assistance. This included physical and mental health, and substance use. A few participants with lived experience described that once their health deteriorated, they knew they needed to change their circumstances as they could no longer cope with the combined pressure of their housing situation and their health challenges. Additionally, in some instances, an improvement in health allowed people to overcome that particular physical capability barrier.

The health needs of children were also identified as turning points for seeking assistance. People with lived experience described how the hidden circumstances negatively impacted on their children’s health. For example, a woman with lived experience, living in an unsafe and overcrowded environment, reflected on the impact hidden homelessness was having on her son:

“I was in a house with three kids with additional needs all in the one room. It was difficult. That wee boy was quite suicidal at the time as well, [he would] climb out windows and jump over bannisters and bring me knives [out the] drawers. It was difficult because he wasn't getting his own space to regulate. So, we're all very on top of one another and [it was] very frustrating.”

9.5 Escalating abuse and exploitation

The escalation of abuse for those in unsafe situations was reported as a motivating factor to seek support from local authority homelessness services in some instances. Women with lived experience particularly cited the escalation of financial and physical abuse as pivotal moments in their journey towards seeking assistance. For instance, one lived experience participant reflected that she only sought support when she could no longer buy the things that she needed to care for her children as a result of financial abuse.

Some third sector and lived experience participants described that in these circumstances, they would often turn to friends and family first. However, after exhausting these options, they would seek stable housing from local authority homelessness services. Women with children reported that they would only leave their hidden homeless and unsafe environments if they could take their children with them.

One third sector participant described how a minority ethnic woman experiencing domestic abuse approached the local authority after an escalation of abuse:

“One of the clients [experiencing domestic abuse], she went to speak to the council to ask for a homeless place and they said ‘are you in immediate danger, do you need to leave now’, and she said ‘yes, I need to leave now’ – she had a seven-year-old son. They said to her ‘okay, we can house you in this place.’”

Some third sector participants indicated that both men and women sought local authority homelessness assistance due to escalating abuse or exploitation. They described women as more likely to experience financial and physical abuse in domestic violence situations, while they felt men were more likely to face abuse from non-family members.

Moreover, several third sector participants described that if the abuse did not directly cause someone to leave an unsafe environment, its emotional impact often led them to a ‘breaking point’ in their mental health. This breaking point sometimes motivated them to seek help to get stable housing.

9.6 Support from wider local authority services or third sector organisations

Some people with lived experience reported seeking assistance when they became aware of relevant services through their interactions with wider services or the third sector. Examples included primary care, social care or welfare services. One care experienced participant described how they accessed homelessness assistance through their social worker after a period of hidden homelessness:

“I spoke to my foster parent. They [got] in touch with the social work straight away. I still think I have an allocated social worker even though I never made any contact with them or had anything to do with them essentially. But they stepped in and put me in touch with whoever it was at the [local council] who allocated me a scatter flat.”

Several third sector participants also mentioned that when an individual accesses wider support services to address issues such as domestic abuse, mental health, sexual health and poverty, this could become a turning point in their journey towards stable housing. Some services proactively inquired about people’s housing situation which led them to be signposted to homelessness support.