Smythe-Snudlington posted:

I may regret seriousposting, but add 'having incredibly selfish lovely parents' to your list.

My son's close friend was homeless on and off from the age of 14 because of a drug addicted mother who didn't care about anyone but herself (she had ten loving children by the way, son's friend was number 3) and a useless father who always put his latest partner before her and her older brother, even if that partner demanded he throw out his underage children. She has lived in a tent on wasteland with a heroin addict who overdosed, with family 'friends' who got tired of having her around and has sofa surfed all over.

I'm not going to go into how we've tried to help since we met her. Will just say that she is now in long term therapy for her borderline personality disorder- something that develops because of attachment issues, no surprise there- and will never have nowhere to go again. But she is very restless and finds it hard to settle nowadays. She has lived with us twice, with a grandparent, in a flatshare and with her boyfriend's parents twice just in the three years we've known her. She's just 21. I think that feeling of rootlessness and discomfort when staying somewhere long term might also have a role in long term homelessness.