This episode is hosted by Josh Ennis, a former Centrepoint service user and now an apprentice in the Fundraising Team. His co host is Anna Wooding, our Campaigns Officer. This discussion centres around the myths and stereotypes that frame the narrative around youth homelessness. Two of our lived experience ambassadors: Toni-Ann and Aminah, set the record straight and talk from their own personal experiences of vulnerability.
If you are at risk of homelessness, please contact the Centrepoint Helpline on 0808 800 0661 or go to Centrepoint's website for advice.
This episode is hosted by Josh Ennis, a former Centrepoint service user and now an apprentice in the Fundraising Team. His co host is Anna Wooding, our Campaigns Officer. This discussion centres around the myths and stereotypes that frame the narrative around youth homelessness. Two of our lived experience ambassadors: Toni-Ann and Aminah, set the record straight and talk from their own personal experiences of vulnerability.
If you are at risk of homelessness, please contact the Centrepoint Helpline on 0808 800 0661 or go to Centrepoint's website for advice.
[00:00:00] Anna: Point Made, the Centrepoint podcast
[00:00:02] Aminah: by young people, for all people.
[00:00:07] Josh: Hi and welcome to Point Made, the Centrepoint podcast by young people, for all people. My name's Josh, a former ex resident of Centrepoint, now employed by Centrepoint as their administrating officer.
[00:00:22] Anna: Amazing, thanks Josh, so glad to be here with you all.
[00:00:25] Anna: I'm Anna, I'm the co host as well. I'm Centrepoint's Campaigns Officer, so campaigning is anything where [00:00:30] we take actions, it could be like emailing your MP. And today, for this topic, we'll be going through some myth busting on youth homelessness. But, before we get into it, I would love to just introduce our panel.
[00:00:41] Toni-Ann: Hello, I'm Toni-Ann, a former Centrepoint Works young person. I am now in full time employment and have secure housing.
[00:00:48] Aminah: Amazing. Hi everyone, I'm Aminah and I'm also a former resident of Centrepoint. I've also experienced homelessness and I'm also now on my own accommodation.
[00:00:59] Anna: Fantastic. [00:01:00] Thank you both so much for joining us.
[00:01:02] Anna: What I love about this podcast is it's about centring the experiences of young people who have faced homelessness. You don't always see that on other podcasts, so I'm really interested in our conversation. Before we go deep into the topic about public perceptions of youth homelessness, I'd love to just talk about, firstly, what do we mean by a myth?
[00:01:19] Anna: So something I've grown up with is if I ate too many carrots as a kid, I would turn orange. Which I think people can do that if they go really far, but I don't think a couple of carrots each day is going to be a problem. [00:01:30] Another one I also had was, I just, maybe it's just like a me thing, but I think I'm quite suspicious about chapstick.
[00:01:35] Anna: I just think the more like Vaseline or chapstick you use, the more your lips like need it. But I don't know if that's just like a me thing. What about you
[00:01:42] Toni-Ann: guys? One of the ones that I heard growing up a lot in my household was if you cross your eyes like this. And the wind blows, it will stay like that forever.
[00:01:52] Toni-Ann: I had that one too. And I did test it a lot, I'm not going to lie. And yeah, my eyes never stayed like that. So it helped to [00:02:00] infuse the rebel in me. You're
[00:02:01] Aminah: looking good, yeah. One of the myths I heard is that leaving your lights on during the daytime or in the nighttime will stop you from getting burgled.
[00:02:11] Josh: And evidently that's a myth as well. If someone's going to do it, they're going to do it. Yeah, yeah. A myth that was kind of drilled into me. I'll say I'll share was what don't kill you can make you stronger. And that's not always the fact at all. Cause some things will just leave you in a way that you don't need to be.[00:02:30]
[00:02:30] Josh: What is true is if you survive something, you have an opportunity to get better. But what don't kill you don't always make you stronger.
[00:02:37] Anna: I agree with that. Yeah. Thanks, Josh, so much for mentioning that. I think that leads us kind of into the deeper topics of what we want to chat about, about resilience and how just because something's happened doesn't mean it's good.
[00:02:46] Anna: And just because you have experiences and you have more knowledge from it or wisdom doesn't mean it should have happened in the first place. So the myths that we discussed were quite light, lighthearted. They were quite harmless. But actually, there are many myths that can be very harmful, to young people [00:03:00] who are experiencing them and just about the conversation around homelessness in general.
[00:03:04] Josh: And as I said, there are quite a lot of myths out there that are associated with homelessness. So I would like to ask what comes to your mind when you hear about homelessness and a myth being associated to it, what kind of myths do you believe are stereotypically
[00:03:21] Aminah: brought up? Homelessness can never be solved, or it's never ending.
[00:03:26] Aminah: I think that's really harmful, especially because people try their best to not [00:03:30] get homeless and they're always trying to ask for help, but people take it as, well if you help them then they're just going to go and spend it on the wrong things.
[00:03:37] Toni-Ann: I think another one that I've heard that is very harmful, and I've heard it from a lot of different people that homeless people smell or are dirty, and especially experiencing homelessness myself, there was never a point where I looked like what society would expect me to.
[00:03:54] Toni-Ann: Look like I was always clean. I was always kempt, and [00:04:00] I found a way, whether it's in a public service bathroom or at school, to stay fresh and take care of my personal hygiene. So I think that's a big misconception that homeless people aren't proud of their personal hygiene.
[00:04:13] Josh: What is damaging with these myths is that they generalize a lot and everyone is tasked with the same brush, which we have come to learn in society.
[00:04:22] Josh: isn't the right way to address things or believe how things should go. We all have our ideas of what it is it looks like, [00:04:30] maybe not based off real stories or our own stories, but we have ideas based off the media and other social circles. This could be based off imagery. This could also be based off people begging on the streets, or this could just be a factor of.
[00:04:46] Josh: People believe in homelessness doesn't count if you are sofa surfing or have access to any of a
[00:04:52] Toni-Ann: residence. Yeah, I think being in the position myself as someone that's sofa surfed, it can be really daunting because you worry about if you're able [00:05:00] to get in, you rely on somebody giving you access to a property, to a building, and that can change at any time under any circumstances and you have to move on.
[00:05:10] Toni-Ann: So it can be really harrowing not having a fixed address, not having a home.
[00:05:15] Josh: I can understand that, especially from a related experience in the past as well. Would anyone else like to give their opinion?
[00:05:22] Aminah: Yeah, I think the thing about sofa surfing and homelessness doesn't count, that's technically being homeless because you're literally staying [00:05:30] in someone else's house and that's not your own place.
[00:05:32] Anna: Yeah, it just made me think about conversations I've had with friends or when I've been like volunteering at night shelters and things and just the assumption that homeless people are rough sleeping and that's what it looks like. It just makes me think there must be so many people who like don't get the support they need Because like people aren't seeing what's going through or like when you're marginalized from different areas, and what does that look like?
[00:05:52] Anna: So yeah, thanks
[00:05:53] Toni-Ann: for sharing that I think, you know, it's a really hard position to be in and a lot of the [00:06:00] times we don't always realise that the person next to us in the booth at work or someone next to us in school could be sofa surfing. There are many experiences that I had in primary school and secondary school where I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor and the next morning I've got to make it into school, I've got to be there by 8:45 just like everybody else and I have to operate and function just like all the other students. So,
[00:06:21] Aminah: Yeah, I agree with the way you look as well because you don't have any clothes and then I experienced that in sixth form. Yeah. My friends are like, Sorry, go on. My friends are [00:06:30] like, what are you wearing today?
[00:06:31] Aminah: I was like, well, I didn't have anything. I wasn't really at home. You can't really tell them anything because then you, you know, that they'll judge you. There was no one else can support you apart from yourself. It's a really vulnerable place to be. And
[00:06:43] Josh: I think that's also something that needs highlighting.
[00:06:46] Josh: Homeless people that want to try are probably more independent. Because they have to do more than the average person that is working or has a home. Because to do that, you have [00:07:00] to go out your way and then you have to accept the judgement that people will put on you. You have to have a stronger pride sometimes than the normal average person just to be able to manage taking insult and criticism to move forward and progress.
[00:07:13] Josh: And that's the part that's also hidden and unrevealed until you become successful or you change and make differences yourself. And I think that's something that you have to acknowledge within yourselves as well, that coming from where we were to where we are now, that independent [00:07:30] change has been created by yourselves.
[00:07:32] Josh: Yeah,
[00:07:32] Anna: something we briefly talked about when we were discussing this topic was you both were saying that as a young person, the way that you describe experiencing homelessness is different to say how a council would or the police or parents. You wouldn't necessarily say, well, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but like, "I am a young, homeless person", so I was just wondering, from both of your experiences, how would you have described it when you were growing
[00:07:52] Toni-Ann: up?
[00:07:53] Toni-Ann: So for me, there was a battle. There was a battle mentally, one, trying to comprehend what I'm experiencing, but two, [00:08:00] that, what Josh mentioned, there's a level of pride, but the pride that I'm talking about isn't just the level of humanity, it is also linked to my culture. So the culture that I grew up in, in a Caribbean background, you're very much encouraged and told that you don't speak your issues outside of the house.
[00:08:18] Toni-Ann: So I was always trying to weigh up who do I talk to about this situation. And at the same time I didn't want to betray the confidence of my family. So I kind of just rode along with the punches in a way. [00:08:30] And I think it was as I got older and we kept, like, kept moving. We kept popping up in different places.
[00:08:37] Toni-Ann: I've come home from school and, you know, this is not where we're staying tonight. We're going somewhere else. And I'm a little bit confused. I started to realize, oh, we're homeless. I started to realize the stories kind of ran out. You know, we're just going over here to stay tonight. That that wasn't the case.
[00:08:51] Toni-Ann: This is where we have to stay tonight. The fact of the despair on my mom's face. She doesn't know what's happening tonight. So I want to ask more questions like what we're [00:09:00] having for dinner, are we going to watch telly, all of these things. And I can realise based on how she's functioning that that's not what's going to happen.
[00:09:08] Toni-Ann: I'd heard the words homeless before growing up. I think we all have. But I never made that correlation that me sofa surfing and this person in front of me sleeping on the street are, we're both homeless. We're both going through the same thing just from a different side of the spectrum.
[00:09:25] Aminah: Yeah, that's so
[00:09:26] Anna: important.
[00:09:27] Anna: And then if you're going to school and your friends are just assuming [00:09:30] things about where you've come from or where you've slept the last night, I think if you're still wrestling with that yourself, where you don't know how you want to describe your own experiences, you've just got so much pressure on you of yeah, of just feeling like how to be authentic in your situation and what feels safe, what doesn't feel safe.
[00:09:45] Anna: Did you have anything you'd like to add?
[00:09:48] Aminah: Yeah, I never used the term homelessness as well when I was younger. I did when I was growing up, I did see a lot of homeless people and I did used to, like, feel bad for them and be like, Oh, why are they homeless of why they're not [00:10:00] living inside the house?
[00:10:00] Aminah: Or I'd ask these questions to anyone that I could find, like anyone in school and they'll just be like, Oh, it's their choice. And then as I grew up, I was always thinking back to that, and I was always like, well, I don't think it's their choice. I think there's a lot, there's something a lot deeper, which is why they're on the streets.
[00:10:17] Aminah: No one would want to live on the streets. And then, I think when I started experiencing being homeless, I didn't realise what was going on, but I was just always grateful that I had somewhere to go, whether it was staying inside the block, whether it was [00:10:30] sofa surfing, whether it was just waiting for my mum to open the door, or just waiting for someone to open the door.
[00:10:36] Aminah: Yeah I don't think the term homelessness ever did come across my head until I was fully, fully out of the house.
[00:10:47] Anna: So yeah, before we keep going, in order to frame mythbusting, we wanted to go to our social media channels. I have a lot of campaigners that I chat to, and also we have the general public.
[00:10:59] Anna: And we just [00:11:00] ask them, what are your myths or what kind of the assumptions that you've seen about homelessness? So I'll read out some of them and then we'll go into them more deeply one by one and knowing your experiences as well and how they link in. So these were some of the most common.
[00:11:13] Anna: Homelessness is only sleeping rough, which we've just discussed. Also, homeless people have drug or alcohol addictions which led them there, and it's their bad behaviour or troublemaking which causes them to be thrown out and become homeless. They're choosing not to live with family even when they could.
[00:11:28] Anna: For example, young people [00:11:30] have fights with their parents, then they choose to just live on the streets or leave. Young people can only present as homeless if they're sleeping rough, or they have a letter from their parents, otherwise there aren't other presentations of it. Or, you can't solve homelessness, so therefore giving money to homeless people continues the cycle, and therefore, you know, what should we do?
[00:11:50] Anna: And then again, as what we were discussing, just that idea of troublemaking and seeing homeless young people as people who are trying to make life difficult, or they've made that decision for themselves and they want to stay in it. [00:12:00] And I know that that can be quite hard to hear, just all of those. And I think it really does point to the fact that there is just like a lack of education and ignorance that's coming in.
[00:12:08] Anna: So we would love to just use, yeah, the rest of this time to really unpack those, reframe it, and really see the real stories of young people. So yeah, let's start with this idea of troublemaking. How does that feel to, yeah, hear that being said?
[00:12:23] Toni-Ann: I feel like it's a blanket A blanket phrase. It's used to almost [00:12:30] remove compassion.
[00:12:31] Toni-Ann: And it's like, well, if they're troublemakers, then they, you know, deserve to be in that. And I don't think that's right. I think everybody deserves help. I think everybody deserves to be seen. And those assumptions are very harmful on people. And a lot of times these are people that are just trying to survive.
[00:12:48] Josh: So, kind of like the saying you are what you eat. Realistically, after a while, if you're labelled something and you are segregated and isolated in that environment, [00:13:00] Then, after a while, you can become. what you're being
[00:13:04] Toni-Ann: labelled as. I think I agree very much so in the sense of it can definitely be like a self fulfilling prophecy.
[00:13:11] Toni-Ann: Behaviour is a form of communication and we see communication as language in our society but there's other formats of communication, ie. behaviour and there's always something more deeper under the surface. When you peel back what that root cause is and what's happening to that person, and especially when you're a young [00:13:30] person, when you are full of hormones, you're still learning.
[00:13:32] Toni-Ann: You're still navigating the world. When you marginalize and put somebody in a box, rather than having a conversation with them and communicating with them and finding out what's happening underneath the surface, these labels can become weaponized and very dangerous and can make you marginalized as well.
[00:13:49] Anna: Yeah, and I think it's that thing about looking under the surface, you know, what is that young person experiencing at home, what have they gone through, you know, they might have had a horrible situation even when they were just like at school and just, [00:14:00] yeah, really getting to know their story. So I wanted to bring us on to kind of the role of parents.
[00:14:04] Anna: And so we did a research report into how, like, what are the reasons that young people are homeless. 54% of them are because of family or friendship breakdown. And you know, one of these myths about homeless people have drug or alcohol addictions, when we were talking to our helpline staff, they were saying often it's the parents that have this addiction that then leads to the young person not being able to stay at home.
[00:14:25] Anna: So yeah, what have your, if you're happy to share, what have your experience has been with [00:14:30] family or yeah, what would you say to kind of the role of parents within this?
[00:14:34] Toni-Ann: For me personally, my personal experience, drugs and alcohol wasn't a part of our lives and that wasn't the reason why we became homeless.
[00:14:41] Toni-Ann: I had been a young carer since I was very young and my mum had hidden disabilities which affected her career, so she eventually couldn't work, which affected her income and affected her being able to also care for me. And of course, you know, we weren't able to keep up with the rent from that her losing [00:15:00] her job role have becoming more.
[00:15:01] Toni-Ann: It also took a toll on her mental health as well. And as I mentioned earlier, growing up in that cultural background, being in the Caribbean household, although she was experiencing certain things, she didn't know that there was access to support outside of outside of that. She was really worried as well that if she told, like, say, the GP that we're hungry, that, you know, social services are going to get involved and I'd be taken.
[00:15:23] Toni-Ann: So there was a level of like what Josh said earlier, we're surviving, but then there's that level of [00:15:30] worry because you, you don't believe that the support is out there or you don't know how to access it. And, you know, finally being given temporary accommodation, for a short period of time, we were housed in a hotel.
[00:15:41] Toni-Ann: And that was one of the most stressful things for me because it was further away from, from, from school. Being a young carer, I often had to attend to my mum's personal hygiene or, the household chores. And in a hotel room where you're sharing with your mum, you can't do what you used to do. So it's [00:16:00] hard to even assist with showers.
[00:16:01] Toni-Ann: It's hard to get nutritional meals. For me, like, even cooking was just such a difficult thing. And yeah, I think it can really affect you as a person. Yeah, my
[00:16:11] Aminah: response to the myth would be that mine wasn't, mine wasn't related to drug or alcohol. It was also related to family breakdown. But it was also related to social services.
[00:16:22] Aminah: So I've also had social services from when I was young. As long as I can remember, I've had social services involved in my life. [00:16:30] While they were involved, I personally don't think that there was enough support. Within our family there was always like a family plan or child protection plan and that led to a lot of the arguments that were caused inside the family and then we had a family breakdown so I was not, I ended up being displaced from my family.
[00:16:55] Aminah: There was also a death as well that led to me being homeless and then ending up in the centre [00:17:00] point. A lot of
[00:17:00] Josh: my friends that were very close to me and still see me to today didn't know I was homeless either. I used to go to the swimming baths to get a shower because I had a I used to do PT in the leisure centre.
[00:17:11] Josh: I used to go to charities for clothes, extra clothes and stuff like that because I had no access to get to the clothes that I used to have. I used to go around to my friends and act like I was just chilling over, play the PlayStation. Realistically, I needed dinner. I needed a snack. I needed something to eat.
[00:17:28] Josh: But my pride would not [00:17:30] allow me to feel the humiliation. of telling other people that I am now what everyone sees as rock bottom, worthless, and you're not. But because of all them stigmas, all them stereotypes, it was already ingrained in my head that I am that. Because that's what society sees people struggling or anyone in my position as.
[00:17:54] Josh: And it's only realistically when I ended up in that situation, when I had a newfound respect. [00:18:00] For people that are homeless or struggling also for surfing in any form or condition and maybe that's an acknowledgement that was missing from you where people didn't really know how to give you the right acknowledgement, maybe.
[00:18:14] Josh: And whether it came to, I don't know, social services or anything. Maybe the reason that you didn't want to talk is because you maybe never felt that you had a real safe space. Which is very valuable and important for people that feel vulnerable or are made to become vulnerable. [00:18:30] But do you reckon that there could have been procedures or anything that could have made you feel more comfortable with talking?
[00:18:39] Aminah: Yeah, I think, with Toni-Ann you mentioned that, there was a fear of going to the authorities and asking them for help because you of the misconceptions and stuff and as you mentioned as well, I also had that like culturally as well. Like it's not right as a Muslim woman as well, you shouldn't go and disclose what's going on or as [00:19:00] a Muslim woman presenting as homeless or presenting as you have some sort of difficulty was looked down on is like, you're really weak.
[00:19:06] Aminah: You're like really weak or there's something wrong with the whole family, not just you. I ignored all of that and I did still try and seek help. That was still at the back of my head because of, like, different family members and stuff. I did try and seek help. I asked, like, teachers whenever I was in school for help.
[00:19:23] Aminah: I asked, like, social services whenever they were involved. I tried calling the helplines and stuff and the police and stuff. And because I [00:19:30] was underage, no one really believed anything that was going to happen. And when I did present as homeless, I went through the council. I done all of that process and I tried to tell them, like, you know, I know what's going to happen.
[00:19:39] Aminah: Like, I know. And So when I did go and try and ask for support, they, I was basically pushed away and told that I can't advocate for myself. And then they always went back to my parents or went back to an authority figure that I was living with and confirmed with them whether these events were true or not.
[00:19:58] Aminah: And why would any [00:20:00] parent or authority figure be like, yeah, this is true. That's what's going to happen. But yeah, there's one time I remember as well where my relative that I was living with kept saying that they were going to ship me off to another country And I kept telling the police like I know what's going to happen as soon as I go home and they were like well I think if you just go home and just talk to them it'll be fine like I think they're just saying it for the sake of it, but it's really sad because it happens to a lot of young people boys and girls like in any culture and
[00:20:29] Josh: Yeah [00:20:30] I would say that is one of the fundamental issues within different cultures, within different households, within different families is you are brought up with a misconception, which leads to a mistrust in the services or in the, in the people that would help you in the people that you need to go to.
[00:20:49] Josh: And it's almost made to feel like if you go over there rather than the concept of receiving help, which is what they're designed for. You're going to go over there and become a [00:21:00] ticket. You're going to come over there and you're going to shame the family. You're going to go over there and you're going to disrespect yourself.
[00:21:04] Josh: You're going to lose your own value. I do want to highlight something you said earlier, Aminah. If you're in fear, you feel vulnerable, and you feel like you're actually in danger, then realistically, somebody should hear that and there should be either an investigation or some report made in due diligence to your safety.
[00:21:24] Josh: And unfortunately, that's the lack of it. Whereas at Centrepoint And I think this is why I've got so much pride for being with [00:21:30] Centrepoint and gratitude for the help Centrepoint gave me. They don't wait to hear that you're going to end up in detriment. If you can show it, you can prove it. They're there to support you from that point.
[00:21:41] Josh: They're there to prevent.
[00:21:43] Aminah: Yeah, I think CentrePoint uses the holistic approach, whereas even though authority figures are taught to use the holistic approach, they don't really use that, and they don't see, I think CentrePoint also don't see young people as just young people, they see them as someone who's gone through experiences that they know what they're talking about.
[00:21:58] Aminah: Not just that, oh, [00:22:00] go back to your parents or go back to whoever you're living with.
[00:22:02] Toni-Ann: Both touching on what Aminah and Josh have to say, I really agree with both of you. And I think this is what we talk about when we speak about advocacy. I think we hear the word advocate, we hear the word signposting a lot, but we don't necessarily know what it means.
[00:22:17] Toni-Ann: And especially in organizations, we hear the terminology youth voice. What is a youth voice? What does that look like? And I feel like Centrepoint has really understood what a youth voice is and they find ways of championing that and [00:22:30] amplifying that through advocacy and through trauma informed approaches.
[00:22:34] Toni-Ann: The experiences I've had of homelessness has been a long, toiling one, unfortunately, where it's been from childhood, had a little bit of a break, and then adolescence fell into it again. And one of the things I've noticed, especially with volunteering and giving my time in my local community, when we talk about mistrust, further than just the fact of cultural aspects, There's a lived experience, and we all have lived experiences, we all have a worldview, and based on what [00:23:00] you experience within the world shapes that worldview, and it can shape that, that, that trust and the yearn to want to ask for help as well.
[00:23:07] Toni-Ann: And in my time in volunteering, one of the things that I found, which is that a food bank was that we would often see people that are homeless or people that were low income or couldn't afford a meal that week. And rather than that. Notion that you hear that that people are greedy or that they just want to, you know, beg or want money.
[00:23:24] Toni-Ann: A lot of these people, I would say 75 percent of them that came through our doors [00:23:30] would be hesitant to even take a loaf of bread. Are you sure there's somebody else that doesn't need it more than I do? So there is, there's this, it's being overlooked that these people are human. They are, they, they, they, Go through just as much as the rest of us and although they're going through some of those things They're still in a position where they're not thinking about themselves first.
[00:23:51] Toni-Ann: They're still kind. They're still thinking about other people They're worried about you as a service. Are you gonna have enough, you know resources left over to help the next person [00:24:00] and often you have to convince them that I have enough time for you. I have enough resources to help you. And I think that's a different layer and level of advocacy that comes within this area that we don't always see or speak about as well.
[00:24:12] Toni-Ann: And through you offering that help, through you offering that support, through you being a voice, helps to build up that tower of trust again, which unfortunately can be so easily knocked and wavered. Yeah, I
[00:24:23] Aminah: think it's something for, like, it raises the question of how we are as a society. Like, we're looking down on these homeless [00:24:30] people or people that are struggling, but they have more empathy than people that are, say, like, well off than people that are struggling.
[00:24:37] Aminah: I
[00:24:37] Anna: think what you can tell from all three of your stories is this, you know, it's so harmful to say that young people haven't asked for support or that it's their fault, because all three of your stories show how you've gone above and beyond for family, you've gone above and beyond to seek that support.
[00:24:50] Anna: But actually, you've been Yeah, there's just so many different signs of being let down by authorities, let down by family, let down by social services or again, that kind of [00:25:00] mistrust of like you've asked for help and you just don't know how you're going to be perceived. So if someone is listening and they actually want to know what support they have, what advice would you have for them that you wish
[00:25:08] Toni-Ann: you'd known?
[00:25:09] Toni-Ann: I think something Aminah said earlier, which really resonated with me was pushing past that voice of, of no, of not seeking help, of Thinking that you're in the wrong for asking or shining a light on your situation, I think it's important to, if you know that there's something wrong and you need help, even [00:25:30] though you might have been told culturally that you don't take this outside the household or you're not the kind of person that would normally report this, to do it, because it will It can be the thing that is in between you being here today and tomorrow.
[00:25:43] Toni-Ann: And there are so many resources there, and the search engines are literally just that, they are based on words. So if you are, you know, you don't describe yourself as homeless, or you don't resonate with that, that terminology, type in different things in there, ask [00:26:00] for support in your local area, I don't have somewhere to stay tonight, what do I do?
[00:26:04] Toni-Ann: And you may just, you will find resources. From like the Centrepoint website, citizen advice, telling you where to go and how to signpost yourself and who to get in touch with.
[00:26:14] Aminah: Yeah, I think listening to your gut as well. If you know you want to go and seek help, if you know that you want to go and speak to someone, do it.
[00:26:24] Anna: So, yeah, each of you have talked about your experience of youth homelessness and what you were going through. And I just wanted to know what would have [00:26:30] been, yeah, something that you would have found really helpful during your journey. If you don't
[00:26:35] Josh: mind, I'll go first. More acknowledgement. I received it from a few people.
[00:26:44] Josh: I would say a handful, which thankfully was a significant amount to a certain extent. But if I could have had that real in depth acknowledgement, and got more support with my health, more support with my mental well [00:27:00] being, and more support financially, I would have valued that a lot more. Then a lot of judgment that I
[00:27:10] Toni-Ann: received.
[00:27:11] Toni-Ann: I think one of the things that would have definitely helped me would have been more IAG, but not in a sense, so information advice guidance, not in a sense of going to someone and asking for that help and support. I would have loved to be heard but I think especially now as a young adult when I look around the place more signposting in plain [00:27:30] sight so more Information available to anyone before that situation happens before the scenario of panic so I would have loved to be able to walk past a local notice board and see some sort of, you know, information about how you can get access to housing advice or support before we came home and, and, and the metal grid was on the window and the doors.
[00:27:53] Toni-Ann: I think that would have also helped to remove the societal pressure of presenting as if you are [00:28:00] not homeless, as if you are all Kempt, as if you've got it all together. I think, yeah, that level of acceptance from society that this is something that can happen to anyone and at any time and not just be labeled as something that happens because you allow it to happen to yourself
[00:28:18] Aminah: If you guys disagree with me, please do say so but I think rather than getting pity from people having getting more Information on signposts and where to get help from.
[00:28:28] Josh: And it's almost like with [00:28:30] certain people if you don't go to the right place at the right time or you don't have the education or the awareness of who to go to, you have nothing. And then after a while, that feeling of having nothing becomes to, you are. And that's the worst part that's the most damaging thing, is that I have turns to I am.
[00:28:49] Josh: And that is the, honestly the most damaging, self destruction thing, you know, for a homeless person to mentally get to. And if we can have more [00:29:00] services that avoid people, get into that way, I feel like a lot of us will be in a better place a lot quicker.
[00:29:06] Toni-Ann: Yeah, definitely. I agree with you. I think, I think this is one of my final points, but, and I think in a way this is almost a myth as well that I heard growing up, like having a handout is such a bad thing.
[00:29:17] Toni-Ann: I have now found in the past few years through my own transformation in life and through. My own work, helping others, that there's definitely a hand up, not a hand out, and crises don't always happen [00:29:30] between 9 a. m. and 5 p. m.
[00:29:32] Josh: Caribbean term, one hand washes the other. Exactly. So that means no one raises themselves, and therefore no one can grow themselves.
[00:29:41] Josh: Everybody needs somebody
[00:29:43] Anna: else. Yeah, I just wanted to talk about the different ways that Centrepoint can help a young person and provide the support. So, the helpline really does care about that advocate of being someone that's on the other side of a phone call who really can listen. So just to read out the number, we have our helpline which is 0808 [00:30:00] 800 0661 or centrepoint.org. uk /helpline and we really want to be there for you. So please do call us or contact us if you need anything. And also, we have, we have a lot of information on our website as well, so if you go on it, there's a lot of questions, so what do I do if I'm sleeping rough, what do I do if I need support, what do I do if I need to talk to someone, so please really do go on our website, centrepoint.org. uk and you can look there, and if you're someone who isn't experiencing homelessness, but you really care [00:30:30] about young people's stories, and you want to know how to help, and you want to know how to do more, we have a lot of stories from different young people that we've worked with over the last, you know, however many years that we've been around.
[00:30:39] So please do go on to centerpoint.org/realstories to make sure that, you know, we've talked about myths and misconceptions and assumptions. Well, these real stories can tell you about people's journeys, so you can get the real stories rather than, you know, these ideas that we have from media.
[00:30:55] Anna: So yeah, please do go on there and look.
[00:30:58] Josh: And if there's anything you take away from today, [00:31:00] please take away that this isn't a scripted thing. This isn't based on everyone talking about other people's experiences. This is our experience. This is our lives. There's no matrix involved. This is what it is.
[00:31:15] Josh: So when you listen to this, please don't just listen with empty ears. Actually pay attention to what you're hearing. Value that we are sharing our truths with you. And please, please, please. [00:31:30] Acknowledge the next person that needs help.
[00:31:32] Toni-Ann: If you like the podcast, please continue to support this podcast and like, subscribe and share.
[00:31:37] Toni-Ann: If you want to find any of the links to support or numbers we mentioned, go to the episode description. Thank you for listening.
[00:31:45] Anna: Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. This has been, yeah, super interesting and very helpful conversation. Till the next time. Goodbye. And that's our Point Made. And
[00:31:55] Toni-Ann: that's our Point Made.
[00:31:56] Toni-Ann: And that's our Point
[00:31:57] Toni-Ann: Made.
[00:31:58] Aminah: And that's our Point Made. [00:32:00] And
[00:32:00] Anna: that's our Point
[00:32:01] Toni-Ann: Made.
[00:32:02] Toni-Ann: Point Made, the Centrepoint podcast by young people for all people.