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The homeless students

How are some university students ending up homeless? Cherry Casey reports

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Why are students becoming homeless?, read our in-depth report here #ukhousing

What happens when students lose parental financial support? #ukhousing

Brogen Harrison (above), who was disowned by her parents (picture: Guzelian)

 

Helping them unpack every September, welcoming them home again in June, and beaming at them during graduation: while university may be the moment many young adults become ‘independent’, there’s still a few fundamentals expected from parents.

So what happens when they’re absent? They exist, but have no part in their child’s life and offer no financial, housing, or even moral support?

For more than 9,300 students across England and Wales, according to data from the Student Loans Company, that is the reality.

University life is structured on the assumption that there is some kind of support outside of term time. Student loans are calculated to stretch over three terms rather than the full year, and university accommodation often shuts during the academic break.

So for those who don’t have this support, the results can be catastrophic.

Disowned and estranged Brogen Harrison, a 26-year-old student at the University of Salford, was disowned by her parents when she decided to move in with her partner and start university. “I tried my hardest to reconcile, but it had to be on their terms,” she says.

"For those who don’t have this support, the results can be catastrophic"

“Only if I left uni and my partner would they let me back into ‘their family’.”

The toll this took on Brogen’s mental health caused her relationship with her partner to break down. In April 2017 – with five months to wait until her next student loan instalment – she became homeless. “It was scary, going from friend to friend with my life in this suitcase. I didn’t want to leave it anywhere as it was everything I had. It was awful,” Ms Harrison says.

After her relationship with her mother broke down, 20-year-old Amie Key also became estranged during her first year at Durham University, where she lived in halls of residence.

“College kicks you out over the holidays because they have open days,” she says. “I managed to stay over Christmas but it was a fight. I had to go and see the welfare teams and say, ‘I can’t go home, please let me stay’.”

During Easter, however, she had no choice but to leave, locking her belongings in the under-bed storage and staying with her boyfriend’s family.


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The extent of student homelessness is not known, but a survey of one of the undergraduate departments at London Metropolitan University found 27 students were either sofa-surfing, or living in hostels or temporary accommodation.

As universities often require students to vacate over holidays, private accommodation from day one can seem like the most obvious option.

Research by Becca Bland, chief executive of estrangement charity Stand Alone, found that only 39% of estranged first-year students opted for halls of residence, in comparison to 79% of the general student population.

But Ms Bland argues that these students are then “not part of the institutional community, which has knock-on effects to their academic achievement”.

By being removed from their peers, this demographic – already susceptible to isolation – are less likely to engage with their academic careers, and this is perhaps one reason why the amount who manage to complete their university studies is three times lower than the national average, with 14% withdrawing from or suspending their studies.

And as Ms Key discovered, private accommodation is still not without complications for an estranged student. “I had to move into private accommodation for my second year, but as I had no guarantor I had to provide six months’ rent up front,” she says.

“That wasn’t feasible for me, so I’ve had to borrow from my boyfriend and I am slowly paying him back.” Insufficient funds compound the housing issue, and Kerry Cross (not her real name), a 23-year-old student at the University of Salford, explains that in her first year, she too “was in a predicament”.

Ms Cross became estranged from her mother aged 17, and after sleeping rough for seven months she moved into a hostel and completed her A levels.

By 19, she was employed and rented her own flat, but a year later decided to apply for university.

“I presumed I was seen as an independent so left the parts about family blank, instead of ticking the right boxes,” she says, explaining that as a result, she was awarded the most basic loan. “I was working full-time alongside university and was pretty stressed,” she says, adding that her studies suffered as a result.

Because of her situation, Ms Cross should have been entitled to the highest level of loan – something she discovered in her second year (and which she received backdated).

But the assumption that she needed to fend for herself is unsurprising – research shows that estranged young adults have usually become cut off from their family at around 16-18 years old, and so are often too old to be taken into the care system.

A total of 33% of these students are impacted by homelessness before they’ve even started university, but as Ms Bland from Stand Alone explains: “Evidence shows that they may have gone to their local authorities and been turned away or told they’re not a priority.”

To tackle this, Ms Bland’s organisation approached the vice-chancellors of universities and asked them to make a public statement that their institution would recognise the needs of estranged students, and ensure the support frameworks were in place.

So far, 42 universities have signed up, such as Sheffield, which now offers eligible students a £4,000 bursary.

Another such institution is Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), although as Ed Naylor, student accommodation manager, points out, this cohort had been a priority of the university’s for some time. “We did a lot of work for care leavers but began to realise that there was another less obvious group, and that was estranged students,” he says.

All of LJMU’s student accommodation is provided by private partners, so when deciding how best to meet the needs of estranged students, Mr Naylor’s team needed to work alongside these partners, often by writing certain clauses into contracts.

For instance, if an estranged student can’t provide a guarantor or deposit, LJMU’s accommodation providers are still required to take them on.

Student demographics

Student demographics

About 42% of young people go to university, according to government statistics, but some are much more likely to become students – and graduate – than others.

A study by the Sutton Trust found that children with professional parents were about three times as likely to enter a ‘high-status’ university, looking at both Australia, England and the US.

Only about 12% of care leavers had gone to university by the age of 23, official statistics reveal, and were a third
more likely to drop out than other students. Geography also plays a big part – with statistics tracking ‘lowparticipation neighbourhoods’, where a low proportion of young people continue with education after the age of 16.

This can cause some concern, says Mr Naylor, but “99% of the time there are no issues”. Affordability is also a big problem.

This is another area over which LJMU is a current leader in the field. “When we choose accommodation providers, we have a tender process that I’m often told is the most rigid and annoying out there,” Mr Naylor laughs.

“But one outcome is that prices are always kept low and we have a range of accommodation, most of which sits around the £110-120 per week mark, which is about £20-30 per week less than Manchester and Leeds.”

One such provider is Unite Students, which first became aware of the issues faced by estranged students via its partnership with LJMU.

“We learned that this is a group who are at risk of homelessness… and that the provision of a safe, secure student home can have a big, positive impact both physically and psychologically,” says Jenny Shaw, student experience director.

Estranged students became a specific target group for the company’s charitable trust, Unite Foundation, in 2014.

“We provide more than just a room and offer a 24/7 free and confidential phone line providing counselling, signposting and legal advice”, Sanctuary Housing

Unite Foundation has to date offered 250 scholarships, around half of which are to estranged students. “These include free student accommodation for up to three years for 365 days a year, and with flexibility to move cities during the summer,” Ms Shaw adds.

A spokesperson for Sanctuary Housing, which has a student housing subsidiary, says if it is made aware of an estranged student it works “to find a solution… We provide more than just a room and offer a 24/7 free and confidential phone line providing counselling, signposting and legal advice”. In addition, students can stay for a fixed term or book an extension at Sanctuary Housing accommodation, meaning they don’t have to vacate during the holidays.

Private landlords, however, are of course harder to regulate, and Mr Naylor says the university would never recommend a first-year student chooses this route. “If they wanted to move into a private house in their second or third year, we have in the past contacted landlords, asking if they can be flexible around guarantors and deposits, and often they agree.”

Some universities can even act as a guarantor. It was this, along with a hardship loan, that enabled Ms Harrison to secure private accommodation for her remaining time at university. “It was really helpful,” she says, but adds: “That period of my life haunts me. I live every day making sure I’m never in that situation again.”

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