What's life like if you are 16 or 17 years old and no-one wants to take responsibility for you? Street Legal tell us a few stories from their casebook.
Names here are invented to protect the young people involved. Their stories are real.
Shaz is now 17 year old. He was brought up in Central London. Three months after he moved to Enfield, his relationship with his mother broke down and she threw him out.
Shaz went to his home borough to ask for emergency accommodation, but they refused saying he was no longer anything to do with them. After sleeping rough for the night, he went to Connexions. They explained that his home borough were acting illegally and put him in touch with Street Legal. After office hours, Shaz came to see Street Legal with no-where to stay. They rang his mum, to see if she'd take him back for a single night, but she wouldn't. They rang Enfield Council who eventually agreed to accommodate him for one night as long as his home borough was legally challenged in the morning.
The following day Street Legal wrote to his home borough threatening judicial review of any decision they made against Shaz. They backed down and Shaz got a safe place to live the next day.
Miranda is now 16. She was living with her parents in an inner London borough until they threw her out.
She went to her local authority housing department who told her to go back home; unable to do so, she 'sofa surfed' with friends for five months. Finally the authority put her in a bed and breakfast for two months while they considered her case.
In March 2009 she was told that the Council were cancelling her accommodation and she had to leave in a few days. The Council claimed that she was 'intentionally homeless' because she wasn't living with her parents. Finally Miranda got in touch with Street Legal via Connexions. They first insisted on a reasonable notice period on her accommodation and a right to appeal. Miranda's now in supported accommodation under Section 20 of the Children's Act - which means she has strong rights and the Council now have a parental duty towards her.
Diya came to the UK alone in December 2008 aged 15. He had fled from Algeria. His dad died in police custody there when he was six, his grandmother had also fled the country. He was interviewed by Kent Social Services and given accommodation. But feeling isolated, with psychiatric problems and speaking no English he fled to London where there is an Algerian community. He was picked up by the drug and alcohol team in a central london borough, who realised that he was sometimes sleeping on buses at night, sometimes staying for a few days with members of the Algerian community. He was referred to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
The London Council wanted to send Diya back to Kent. Diya didn't want to go back to a place where he would be completely isolated and unable to continue treatment. The London Council agreed to support him after Street Legal intervened threatening a judicial review of his case. Street Legal also found a lawyer to represent Diya in his asylum case.