Stephen's story
It is tragic that someone who we found to be a kind and gentle teenager should have been trapped in this way.
Stephen’s story sounds extreme, but from our experience we know it is not. Stephen was rejected by his mother at the age of just 7 and ended up living in foster homes. At 16, he made the fateful decision to run away to London.
He explains his reasons for taking crack as partly his circumstances – homeless, alone, the loss of his family – and partly his insecurity. He felt lonely and that nobody loved him. He took the drug to fill the emptiness.
Then after catching hepatitis C Stephen decided to fight the drugs. He was referred to our Centrepoint Vauxhall Cross hostel. Once he moved in, Stephen quickly started to make good progress.
Stephen found the staff at Centrepoint Vauxhall Cross very supportive – always there when he needed them, building his confidence by telling him how well he’s doing and that he’s looking good. Stephen had never had much encouragement in his life.
Stephen has been clean for 5 months now and has ‘never felt better’. He says: ‘I feel good going to college, doing what other people do, not going out to score drugs’. He says he will never go back to it and is very proud of himself. Now he wants to get a job in web design and his own flat. He’s due to move into a bedsit at Centrepoint Vauxhall Cross which will give him a good start on the route to full independence.
Research* shows that it takes an average of just six hours on the street for a teenager to be approached to sell drugs or their bodies. One chance meeting, like the one Stephen had with the drug addict who ‘befriended’ him, changed his life. It can take as little as two weeks for homelessness to become a permanent, soul-destroying way of life. Recent research** through the University of York commissioned by Centrepoint has revealed that between 36,000 and 52,000 young people are ‘found homeless’ each year
* Source - British Transport Police
** For more information about the study Youth Homelessness Index
