This report is one of five research reports published as part of the Vulnerable Groups Research Programme. The central focus of the programme was to investigate patterns of drug use among groups of vulnerable young people and their access to services. Each project focuses on a different group of vulnerable young people, who tend not to be included in the general population surveys. The project reported on here concentrates on homeless young people. The four others examine: young people involved in sex work, care leavers and runaways, young drug users who are in contact with drugs services and young people in contact with youth offending teams. Many of the young people across these projects are likely to have had similar backgrounds and vulnerabilities. A number of the studies explore this area and the degree to which the young people are in fact the same population caught at different points in their lives and via different services.

The main aim of this study is to provide a detailed account of homeless young people’s substance use to inform future prevention and treatment work with this group. The consensus from a small number of previous research studies suggests that levels of substance use amongst homeless young people are considerably higher than that of the general population. A number of recent policy documents also identify homeless young people as a particularly vulnerable group and suggest that drug misuse contributes to and exacerbates their homeless situation. Such findings highlight the importance of strong links between drugs services and homelessness agencies.