Help for parents, carers and concerned adults
What to do if you are a parent, carer, or other adult who has concerns about a young person’s housing or risk of homelessness.
Family breakdown
Family breakdown is the leading cause as to why young people come to us for housing and support. Early advice and guidance can prevent situations escalating and becoming an emergency.
For the majority of young people, home is the best place for them. We would advise that if a young person doesn’t need to move out, and doesn’t have the means to support themselves, staying at home until they are ready would be the best chance of successfully moving into independence at a later date.
If you have come to the decision that you need to ask a young person in your home to leave, they will need a referral to the homeless prevention service at the local council. You may be asked to confirm to the council that you are asking someone to leave. Once the situation has been verified, and if the young person needs support to manage a tenancy, they will be referred to the housing related support framework in order to access housing from organisations like Doorstep.
If a referral has already been made, we are unable to do anything until the applicant has been referred to us through the framework.
Signposting young people to our service
As a family member or concerned adult you can support the young person to make a self-referral online. If you feel you are not able to support them, signpost them to make contact with us and we can help them through it. Once the referral has been made, we have no more involvement until it returns back to us via the council.
We welcome enquiries from young people and families who want to prepare for when the time comes. We can advise generally on housing options and how to access housing and support. We cannot house anyone by request of the family or against their will.
Doorstep is a charity and young people come to us because they have been made homeless, they no longer feel emotionally or physically safe at home or their living arrangement has broken down in some other way. It must be their decision to seek help and concerned individuals are welcome to encourage or support someone to get in touch.
Referrals for 16 and 17 year olds.
If you have a 16 or 17 year old in your home that you can no longer care for, it is your duty to notify children’s services. If the child approaches us first, we will make this referral.
