Being a seaside town in Devon we have had a lot of visitors at the Open DAW during June. The holiday season also attracts young adults who have left home or their area.
Last week one young man arrived at the centre having travelled from the Home Counties over several weeks. He had no money but was reasonably dressed and tidy plus he had a large back pack with him. Accommodation was his chief concern plus searching for work to get away from problems back home. The Open DAW cannot provide such services. We only act as a signpost to information or agency which may be of help to them.
Unfortunately there is little that can be done in such cases except point them to find some temporary overnight accomodation in a hostel in Exeter or Torquay. These are often unable to find a place and money for travel there is another problem.
Moving to other areas to escape your problems, without having the prospect of accommodation, money and work just creates bigger problems and homelessness for these young people. Staying where they are with their benefits readly available is a much better option. Fortunately he was persuaded to contact a family member who paid sufficient money into his bank account to return home.
It would be helpful if within the town there was a scheme to help these wanderers by having some Guest Houses or hotel willing to give them a room and food for 1 night. This could be funded by a group of organisations, churches etc who pay the Guest House owners at a discount price. We do.of course, have some “homeless people” who only want money to fuel their drug and/or alcohol addiction whom we signpost to the agencies which can help them. Usually they don’t take that route unfortunately
In addition,to get these people to a hostel, back home or wherever they want to be perhaps the Police or someone in authority could have an arrangement with the Rail or bus companies to allow return journeys home for them.
So, if anyone knows of such schemes and how they work we would be delighted to hear about them.
