It was January 2025, the temperature was hovering just above zero, and for the third month in a row Rica had no hot water or working shower in the studio flat of her east London hostel. Her complaints to the hostel manager fell on deaf ears and, when she persisted, she was met with hostility. Her oven was also not firing, but Rica worried that if she complained too much she’d be kicked out and end up homeless again, so she tried to endure in silence.
At 23, Rica was determined to make the most of a tough start in life. Taken into care at seven after a traumatic incident, her foster placement later broke down. Despite all this pain and instability, she defied the odds and got to university — just 15 per cent of care leavers do, compared to 47 per cent of the general population — and graduated in Theatre Studies from University of Leeds.
Rica felt proud of her achievement, but after finishing her degree, and with no family able to support her, she ended up sofa surfing at friends and using her savings to stay in cheap hotels. Some weeks she had just £10 for food and knew what it was to go hungry.
Within two months her £5,000 life savings were gone and she returned to London, broke and homeless. Her east London borough found her temporary accommodation in a hostel, but the strict rules (no visitors allowed) and poor conditions began to affect her mental health. Her social worker grew concerned.
Rica is vivacious and charismatic but also struggles with anxiety and depression. “I suffer from mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, known as MADD,” she says, telling her story to the Standard, and also to award-winning performance poet Lemn Sissay (who himself grew up in care) for a film supporting our campaign. MADD, she adds, is a condition in which both anxiety and depressive symptoms occur, but with neither severe enough to merit a separate diagnosis. “My engagement with the unresponsive hostel manager left me burnt out and exhausted. I didn’t have the energy to fight her and was away from my friend support network in Leeds. I started to lose my ability to manage everyday tasks.”
A referral by her social worker to Settle, a London-based charity that supports care-experienced young people transition to independent living, would change everything. For the first time, Rica had someone she could talk to — an advocate to hear her plight, fight her corner, build her resilience and help her secure better accommodation.
Settle is one of the organisations being funded by our Winter Appeal — Who’s at Your Table? — in partnership with Comic Relief, which seeks to help London’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including people experiencing food insecurity and homelessness, and refugees who have been forced to flee their homes.
Today, as we focus our coverage on homelessness, we can also announce a £500,000 donation from the Julia Rausing Trust, taking our campaign total to £2.4 million.
Simon Fourmy, CEO of the Julia Rausing Trust said: “Julia Rausing was a longstanding supporter of the London Standard and Comic’s Relief’s Winter Appeal, driven by her compassion to help those who are vulnerable or experiencing homelessness. She was a great advocate in encouraging everyone to come together and give what they can, especially during Christmas and the winter months.
“We are proud to continue this partnership in her name and to support organisations like Settle. Every contribution makes a difference, and we hope others will join us in supporting this important appeal.”
Founded in 2015 as a pilot that helped ten young people, Settle has since supported over 850 care-leavers, including 183 last year. CEO Dan Jones says: “Young people leaving care don’t have the same family support that most of us relied on when we left home. We’re there to provide that safety net. That’s what Settle is about. Coaches build a trusting relationship with young people, and that gives them the confidence to set goals and tackle problems for themselves, knowing there’s someone on their side."
In a nutshell
Our winter campaign — Who’s at Your Table? — in partnership with Comic Relief, is raising money to fund organisations in London and across the country helping people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity, and people who have been forced to flee their homes.
The statistics are stark. Around 13,000 young people leave care each year in England and one in three experience homelessness within two years, according to government data. And it’s getting worse — further government data shows a 54 per cent rise in the number of care leavers experiencing homelessness in the past five years.
Against this backdrop, groups like Settle are critical in taking a preventative approach to homelessness. Of the young people they help, 100 per cent sustain their tenancies for at least a year after completing the Settle programme. They also support debt management, with 75 per cent of those in rent arrears clearing their debt by the end of the six-month programme.
In numbers
83,360 The number of children in care in England
13,000 The approximate number of children leaving care each year in England
1 in 3 Care leavers in England experience homelessness within two years of leaving care
54% Rise in homelessness among care leavers in England in the five years to April 2024
9X The rate young care leavers are likely to experience homelessness compared to other young adults
Source: Government data
In Rica’s case, they also gave her food vouchers and worked with her to find healthy ways to cook at home.
“Settle helped me stand up for myself and move to another hostel,” she says. “It’s still temporary accommodation, but I now have hot water and a cooker and I feel a lot happier. They also showed me healthy recipes and made cooking an achievable goal.”
Who will be at Rica’s table this festive season? “I have a complicated relationship with Christmas,” she says. “Because of all the family break-downs I’ve experienced, I struggle to feel comfortable anywhere I live. I try not to personalise the space because I don’t want to get attached and then be forced to leave. So I never really settle and always feel I have to be ready to run.”
That said, she added, “I’ve spent the last two Christmases with a fellow theatre student from university who I call my honorary sister. She comes from Romania and we’ve both been alone without family, so if she doesn’t go back home to Romania to see her mum, I’ll go to Leeds to celebrate with her.”
Rica’s next goal, she says, is to find a permanent place to live and a job — ideally on the London stage or in a creative role in a museum, gallery or theatre company.
“I struggle to define happiness, but for the first time in a long time, my life is improving and I feel moments of contentment,” she says.
Where would she be without Settle? Rica buries her head in her hands. “Probably still in that hostel, stressed and completely overwhelmed. Things might have deteriorated mentally to a place I don’t even want to imagine. Settle gave me a one-to-one coach that made my load easier to bear, gave me strategies to change my situation and helped me execute that change. They gave me back hope.”
How you can help
£5 could support a refugee with transport to attend workshops and sessions offering crucial support
£16 could give a young person facing homelessness access to expert housing advice
£50 could fund a specialist therapy session for a young person experiencing or at risk of homelessness
£90 could give a young person who has experienced homelessness the essentials to make their new accommodation a home
