Shelter calls for 'emergency action' after council puts vulnerable homeless boy in a TENT

A file image of a tent belonging to a homeless person, after a report published on Monday found Cornwall Council housed a vulnerable homeless teen in a tent
Brian Lawless/PA
James Morris30 October 2018

Homeless charity Shelter has called for "emergency action" after a council housed a vulnerable homeless boy in a tent.

In his desperation, the boy – who had a long history of drug problems – sought refuge in an abandoned building and set fire to a mattress to help keep warm.

Following the ordeal, the boy was detained in a psychiatric hospital for 11 months.

The boy, 17, spent five weeks in the tent after approaching Cornwall Council for help. Polly Neate, Shelter CEO, said: "This heartbreaking case is a stark example of the national housing emergency. When a child has nowhere else to live but a tent, surely it’s time to take action."

Cornwall had offered the boy supported accommodation 30 miles away, but he refused. A report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, published on Tuesday, said a social worker helped him pitch up the tent at a campsite.

The council has accepted there were "several shortfalls" in its response to the boy's situation and it promised to "do everything we can to prevent it ever happening again."

At one point, he reported the tent was leaking, and that he had no food. The council then moved him into a caravan for four weeks, which a social worker justified by saying the caravan park was run by “loving people” who made him breakfast.

The report found the boy’s drug use escalated during this nine-week period – between August and October 2016 – to the extent he had “running sores” on his face.

After saying he had voices in his head, he was detained under the Mental Health Act and sent to the psychiatric hospital. Even hospital staff could not hide their dismay at his treatment, using an exclamation mark to say on his records that he had been living: “In a tent!”

Ombudsman Michael King concluded: “There is a long list of failures in this case which had dreadful consequences for the boy. But the starkest, and most worrying, element is the attitude shown towards his situation. I would have expected an unequivocal response that it was simply wrong to accommodate the boy in this manner.

“I now hope Cornwall Council will take this investigation fully on board, and use it to learn where it can improve things so it doesn’t let other young people and their families down in such a way again.”

The council has been told to pay the boy £2,500 in compensation, as well as overhaul its procedures for helping homeless young people.

In a statement, Cornwall said it "accepted the report" and that there were "several shortfalls" in its response to the boy's situation. It promised to "do everything we can to prevent it ever happening again".

Of the tent, the council added: "The worker supporting him felt it was better for him to stay on a campsite rather than for him to become street homeless, with all the risks that entails. However, this went on for too long and there were several points where the service could have done more to support him."

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