Have asked dp and dss to leave.

[MattBerrysHair]

Dp and I don't want to separate but us all living together is not working. I have 2 primary age ds's and dss is 17. We've lived together a year, they moved into our house 110 miles away from their original area. At first there were the usual housemate type problems, mess left around for me to clean up etc but it was generally OK. Ds's and dss got on great, as did dp with my Ds's. Since making friends in our town dss's behaviour has deteriorated. He's had a lot of freedom to do his own thing so long as he pitches in at home, but his weed smoking is causing apathy and grumpiness. He keeps not coming home, not telling us where he is, making a mess of the kitchen and being arsey if asked to sort it out. We found out last week that he was dealing weed and getting into fights. There were teenagers shouting outside our house that he was going to get a 'kicking'. The last straw was yesterday. He was supposed to look after my Ds's from 10:30 - 3:00pm as dp and I were working. He agreed to be back home on Wednesday evening by 10:30 but did not come home until 6:00am and he'd been drinking, so I couldn't work as there was no way I could trust that he would be in a fit state to look after children. I'm self-employed so I lost a lot of money. I don't want my dc exposed to shouty violent teenagers in their own street, or have to explain that their otherwise lovely step-brother is grumpy and lazy due to his drug taking.

Dp has no money for a deposit for rent, bad credit and no furniture. He has a full time job but we are a low income family and rely on UC. We've contacted the housing office at the council and are awaiting an appointment. We'll contact citizens advice too, and look at freecycle for furniture. Is there anything else we can do or any other resources we might not know about?

TIA

literary the point of my post wasn't to reward a pot head With driving lessons, but more to think about ways to get a 17 year old with learning difficulties off the streets and scoring drugs, and get them to do something constructive whilst still encouraging independence and life skills.
Nobody wants a drug user around their DC but the fact is that the op is planning to stay with her DP so dss will always be a part of their lives whilst they are together.
I read the op as a 17yr old with learning difficulties who has been abandoned by his mother at 10, moved over 100 miles away from nearly everyone he knows a year ago and lost his way with cannabis use and a bad crowd of friends.
I answered the ops questions as best I can about practicalities of social housing for an adult man and a 17yr old - my point is that as they are staying together as a couple maybe there is another way. Maybe there isn't, but that's for op to decide

Just to reiterate, dp and I have already decided on which course of action to take, which is for him to take dss and find somewhere else to live. It isn't a knee jerk reaction but a last resort, about which we've had an ongoing dialogue for many month now. I was posting to see of there was anything other than the CAB and the council housing officer that we could get advice and guidance from considering our financial situation. Dss has been spoken to and listened to constantly about his issues and concerns and what is expected of each family member ever since he first arrived and it's made no difference. He's had plenty of warnings and was well-aware that this would happen if he continued to behave in a way that negatively affected anyone else in the household. Me having to lose work on Thursday because he wasn't in a fit state to watch the boys was the last straw. Dp has been researching drugs counselling services and is not being complacent about it.

Just to clarify, until recently I was a housing officer dealing with homeless people. At 17 he has to have an assessment to see if he is a child in need. If he is then he will get support,if he has learning difficulties then I could assist into supported housing specifically for people with those issues. Often after discussing with parent and child the young person would want to return home and would engage with services so that he didn't become homeless. My job was to prevent homelessness and I had plenty of tools to do so. My previous post was somewhat flippant, but in essence that is what often happened. As far as I was concerned getting the young person to think straight was all in a day's work.