As discussed in earlier chapters, many of the young people still live in child welfare institutions in their adulthood. The impact of poor housing policy for young people leaving care potentially not only excludes them from housing, but also restricts their other social and economic opportunities, as introduced in Chapter Seven. This chapter uses the social exclusion framework to analyse the housing pathways of young people in state care who were trying to leave care at the time of the research. It considers their exclusion from the market, policy and society, and the interrelationship between these three aspects of exclusion due to their isolated childhood housing experience. It explores how the state manages their right to independent housing during their transition to adulthood and how their housing status affects other aspects of their adult life.

Without independent housing, many of the young people in care face multiple forms of social exclusion (Johnson et al, 2009). It affects not only health, education and overall well-being, but also self-identity and aspirations for social participation. Their expectations for future social relationships, their place in the community and their contribution to it can be stymied by their lack of housing options. Increasingly, too, the local governments in this research were concerned about the impact of its continued responsibility to house these young people into the foreseeable future.

Housing and social inclusion

The importance of the right to adequate housing and its key impact on social inclusion is recognized in international treaties and Chinese policy. The United Nations defines the right to adequate housing as ‘each man, woman, youth and child have access to and retain safe house and community in peace and dignity’ (UNHCHR, 2010), and calls on all countries to ensure their laws and policies on housing are appropriate for those most in need. The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) held in 1996 passed the Habitat Agenda, which reiterated the commitment of states and governments to comprehensively and gradually fulfil the right to adequate housing (UNHCHR, 2010). It prioritizes the needs of people most likely to be excluded from housing: