Alone in London took part in the action research project 'Dreams Deferred' which addressed the following questions:

Do homeless people still have networks of friends and family relationships or have they been completely severed?

Do they need help to sustain these relationships if they still exist?

Do homeless people need support in making new friends?

What sort of help could be provided to assist homeless people in re-building old networks of friends and family if they want to or in establishing new friendships?

Lemos & Crane undertook the study into these questions, also with the support of the Ashden Trust, London Connection and New Horizons.

Apart from other factors, most commonly homelessness is the result of family and relationship breakdown.

For homeless people old friendships and family relationships have broken down or become increasingly distant, sometimes intentionally; sometimes by accident. New relationships are shallow, of recent origin and may also end abruptly when one or both parties move on. The end result is isolation. The once homeless person may now have a new home, perhaps a new job, some recent and new friends, but there will be few people they have known for a long time or feel they can trust.

Social networks are likely to have the following characteristics:

They are mutual - I may help you; you may help me - maybe not straight away, but you feel some obligation to help me in the future because
I helped you in the past.

They are lasting - Although I may not see you daily, weekly or even monthly, I still expect to be seeing you years into the future.

They are beneficial - I feel more secure. If I am ill or broke for example,
I know that you might help me.

For many people, the strongest of these networks are with their families. In the early years of life a parent cares for a child. Later on, in old age, the parent may expect that the child will have a care for them. One of the most painful things that can happen is enduring conflict and the loss
of contact between parents and children. Grandparents too have a role. Children and young people relate differently to their grandparents than they do to their parents. There will be less authority and restraint and more tolerance and indulgence from the grandparents

Having a good social network can increase the chances of a person overcoming problems elsewhere in their life. Friends and family can help save them from the worst depredations of drug and alcohol misuse and mental illness, and most jobs, especially at the lower end of the pay scale, are filled through word of mouth, networking and contacts.

Crucially, building social networks promotes mutual aid. Many homeless people have contact with professionals and volunteers such as social workers, counsellors, health workers and homelessness workers. However these are one-sided, one-way relationships; they are not 'friendships' as such.The loss of friends and family relationships described above is felt acutely by many homeless people, as has been shown in many studies.

Our starting point for this research was to consider what could be done
to redress the loss of friends and family ties.

Whatever pain has been suffered, however much the loss, from the foregoing it is hopefully clear that some homeless people, at least amongst those who took part in this research, do:

Value relationships with friends and family

Have not lost contact with all their old friends and family members, particularly not grandparents and siblings

Feel the loss of broken relationships

Are keen to re-establish some broken ties with family members

Want to make new friends

Value the support of staff in discussing these matters and helping them think about how to address them

Need support in thinking of places and activities where they can meet new people and make new friends; perhaps even meet new partners

In the light of these conclusions, it seems important that the work undertaken here for research purposes should form part of the services available to homeless people.

There are a number of possible services that homeless people who want to build and re-build networks of friends and family might benefit from. These include:

Family mediation services to help homeless people to re-establish contact with family members and build or re-build relationships of trust

Befriending services to help people identify suitable new activities and places - sports activities, arts and cultural activities, clubs and so on, that they could become involved with where they might meet new people.

Mentoring might help those homeless people who feel that there are aspects of their current behaviour which are impediments to making new friends or getting on better with old ones.

Counselling - some of the people interviewed were already receiving counselling to help them cope better with events in the past.

The starting point for this toolkit is that social networks of friends and family members are important to homeless people, or people who have been homeless, in the same way and for the same reasons as they are important to all of us. They may, however, need some further assistance in building and re-building these networks if they have lost touch with people they value, or become isolated.

The experience of this research is that we should include in our work an element of assistance with building and re-building social networks. This
is not to suggest either that friends and family are a substitute for professional help with, say, mental health, drug or alcohol misuse, behaviour management and so on. But friends and family are important contributors to confidence, self-esteem and a sense of wellbeing,
an improved quality of life.

Discussions of friends and family may also highlight other needs which generic support workers may not be able to deal with. For example, an individual service user might want the help of a skilled mediator in making contacts with family members they have lost contact with. Or they may feel that they need counselling which would again require an intensive and skilled input.

Nevertheless it is clear that as a part of assessing people's needs, offering them support and in the resettlement process, understanding their social networks and helping them to consolidate or re-build them is an important part of what homeless people need.

If you would like to order a free copy of the full report:
Gerard Lemos & Stefan Durkacz (2002)
email enquiries@als.org.uk or call 020 7278 4486