Sir: Frank Field is certainly right in drawing attention to
the rapidly increasing problem of homelessness amongst single young people (August 5). However, his recommendation that what is needed is a reception centre for young people really does not go far enough and fails to some extent to understand the depth of the problem.
At New Horizon, we dealt with over 1,300 homeless young people last year inCentral London. In our experience, simply to provide ' shelter ' is not enough. We are talking of young people between the ages of sixteen and twentyfive, many of whom have emerged from a local authority car,e order, who are simply not equipped to cope with unsupported independent living. Many of them still need a quasi-parental concern, even if it is expressed in terms of social worker support.
With the ever increasing number of young people emerging from collapsed family situations and unsatisfactory environmental conditions, we are convinced of the need to provide smaller social worker supported living units which enable the individuals to complete the emotional experience of adolescence and grow to the point where they can support themselves and survive independently.
Finally, we seem at this time, to be hearing of this problem of homeless single people, particularly in Central London. Considerable coverage was given last week in the London evening papers to the concept that we were basically confronted by an immigrant probblem with large numbers of coloured youngsters roaming the streets. It is interesting to note that of the 1,300 we worked with last year, seven were definably coloured.
Jon Snow Co-ordinator, New Horizon Youth Centre, 1 Macklin Street, London, WC2
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