Being homeless eats away at your self-worth, says care leaver | UK News

When Klarisse Smith started living in a homeless hostel in Birmingham at the age of 16, she had been in the care system for two years.

She had spent that time moving between her foster carer, her aunt and her partner’s family.

“I felt like my social worker just kind of washed her hands of me when I went to my auntie’s,” she said.

“I didn’t really have much contact with anyone. They just left me to my own devices and at the time I just thought this was pretty normal.”

New government data shows the number of households in England with at least one young care leaver facing homelessness has risen by 37% in the past five years – more than double the increase for the general population.

The care charity Become said the figures showed “a complete failure in support for care leavers”.

A government spokesperson said the risk of homelessness faced by care leavers was “unacceptable” and it was making “record investment” in social and affordable housing.

Klarisse, now 24, said: “Being homeless kind of strips your confidence away. It eats at your self worth and has you feeling like it’s never gonna change.”

She remembers her social worker being on leave a lot and only visiting her at the hostel when she was waiting on her Universal Credit claim.

“I had nothing to sustain me within the six weeks, so she gave me £50 a week and she’d drop it round in cash,” she said.

It was difficult to ask for support during those years, Klarisse said.

“If you’re not the type of person to want to constantly be nagging someone, then you just kind of get left under the system,” she said. “You have to constantly be making the calls and the emails.”

While Birmingham City Council said it could not comment on individual cases, it acknowledged the “significant challenges” young care leavers like Klarisse faced when transitioning to independent living.

A spokesperson said cover arrangements were “always in place” to ensure continuity of support when a social worker was unavailable and it was committed to ensuring care leavers had safe accommodation and the support they needed.

They said Birmingham had commissioned a Care Leaver Pathway since January 2025 to support 16 to 17-year-olds who were homeless or in care, focusing on life skills, youth engagement, education and training.

Klarisse sat her A levels while at another hostel. She then did a social work degree and this summer completed a  scholarship programme for clinical medicine at the University of Oxford.

She said: “I studied social work because I got an understanding of the social care system. I’m a care leaver myself, and I feel that I can relate to a lot of people, especially foster kids. I can instill some confidence into them.”

It took a “special kind of person” to be a social worker, she said, because things that might not seem significant to others could mean “literally everything” to a child in the care system.

She said: “When you’re a child, you’re a lot more sensitive. So, putting their clothes in bin bags, for example, might just be a form of transporting them. But to a child, it feels like there’s something they’ve done wrong to be treated like this. They treat people the same when they come out of jail.”

New figures from the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show there were 4,610 18 to 20-year-old care leaver households facing homelessness in 2024-25, up 37% from 2019-20.

The number in the general population has risen 14.5% since 2019-20, to 330,410 in 2024-25.

The data tracks those who have been assessed by their local authority as homeless or threatened with homelessness, and so have received a relief or prevention duty.

Clare Bracey, director of policy, campaigns and communication at Become, warned not all cases show up in official statistics.

“Part of the problem is that young people aren’t reaching out for support,” she said.

A DCLG spokesperson said: “Our Homelessness Strategy will set out bold steps to prevent homelessness and deliver lasting solutions, and our landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will require public bodies to consider the support young people need when leaving care.”

Ms Bracey said the government was “taking forward really positive developments” with the bill.

It would require local authorities to support care leavers up to the age of 25 to help them transition into independent living.

“We want to make sure that it is really clear who that support applies to, that there is a broader definition of that support and that young people have a say in what support they should get,” Ms Bracey added.

A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “In order to effectively reduce homelessness and tackle housing waiting lists, councils need the powers and resources to build or acquire more of the genuinely affordable homes our communities desperately need.”

They added there were currently 132,410 households living in temporary accommodation, costing councils £2.8bn a year.