Working while doing A levels

Yes. No.

Did that not make you unhappy? Why didn't you worry about a drug addict going through your food etc?

I was already unhappy, and because there is little you can do about it. I did care, I did get angry and I did take some action but ultimately I just stopped leaving food downstairs. Everything has to be assessed in context, and for me that situation was as good as I could hope for at the time.

Or, you could have bought a fridge for your room?

Yes because it is that simple. It isn't like I 1) had no money to buy one 2) had no way of transporting one 3) didn't have room for one and 4) wasn't allowed one in the terms of the tenancy - to offer but a choice few of the myriad barriers.

So your landlord allows alcoholics and tenants to take drugs in the house, but won't allow you to put a fridge in your room?

Anyway, why didn't you just move elsewhere?

He was one of them. That aside, it is very common for tenancies to disallow various appliances being used in rooms.

Rooms are hard to come by when you are on housing benefit, and harder still when you are 16. Being able to "just move" isn't a choice everyone freely has. How do you suppose I would move my stuff? pay for any deposit(s) that I might be required to pay? I fear you have an overly simplistic idea of what it means to have few - if any - meaningful choices available to you. I had two options: homelessness or a young person's housing unit and neither was in the last bit preferable.

Well it just doesn't sound like a great place to live especially whilst studying.
I've been in the same situation - housing benefit, and on my own at a young age. I just moved my stuff myself, got my deposit back from my current landlord, and used it for the next one.

Young person's housing hostels and Foyer and actually really good, and you get support and people who help you and care about you.

1) It wasn't, but I didn't study so it was okay.
2) Which I'm sure was a relief, but you need to be careful not to assume that your own choices were governed by the same considerations as mine were - no matter how ostensibly similar our situations. I didn't have a deposit where I was living and even if I had I would not have gotten it back and certainly not prior to moving out.
3) One Foyer is not the same as the next,

There is more I could say but there is no need to expand on point 2 really.

So were you working? I would have just worked as much as possible so I could afford somewhere better/ deposit.
How long did you stay there, and did you ever return to studying?

I appreciate that whilst we are all brushed under the same term, that there are huge differences between our circumstances, so I do apologise for assuming things.
No, but the ones I've seen have been great, and are supposed to be some sort of quality control.

I have just turned 16.

Thank you. I will definitely try to see what help/support I can get from there. As an update, my parents are no longer keeping me until I finish GCSEs, but will now kick me out by New Year.