A stable and secure home is not only a fundamental human right but an essential foundation for a safe, healthy and meaningful life.
So why have the rights of children and young people been ignored to the extent that almost 40 per cent of our homeless population is now aged under 24, according to the 2021 Census?
Even more disturbing is the sector data showing that every night across Australia, 1 in 2 children and young people are turned away from crisis refuges. This is due to a shortage of beds and the lack of child-appropriate supported accommodation for 12–15-year-olds.
This shocking statistic mirrors our experience at Youth Off The Streets.
Last year, 257 young people accessing our homelessness service in NSW identified crisis accommodation as their most pressing need. Fewer than half of those young people could be accommodated due to capacity constraints.
This is a trend across the youth homelessness sector that reflects the rising demand for youth homelessness services, without equivalent funding increases for services to meet that demand.
If as a society we agree that housing is a basic human right, why is homelessness getting worse for children and young people?
Is it because we assume that the rights of adults automatically extend to their offspring? And that there is really no need to consider the rights of children and young people as individuals?
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that in 2021–22, 39,300 young people aged 15–24 were unaccompanied by an adult – meaning they ‘presented alone’ – when they sought help from homelessness support services.
Whether due to domestic, family and sexual violence, the housing crisis or family breakdown, the fact is that unacceptably high numbers of children and young people face homelessness alone.
They also experience one of the most dangerous and hidden forms of homelessness. Almost one-third of young people couch surf to stay off the streets, but this still puts them at risk of exploitation, abuse and disconnection from social networks, healthcare, education and employment.
There is no one-size-fits-all, failsafe way to prevent child and youth homelessness. But what the sector has known for decades is that a standalone National Strategy to End Child and Youth Homelessness is long overdue.
Children and young people are in crisis and nothing less than a targeted, developmentally appropriate, adequately funded national strategy is needed to tackle the issue. To achieve this, our focus should be on ensuring that any experience of child and youth homelessness is ‘rare, brief and non-recurring’.
A national strategy that takes a whole-of-government and community approach to ending child and youth homeless will put us in a stronger position to:
- recognise and provide the range of responses needed to meet the specific developmental and cultural needs of children and young people, especially those who are unaccompanied by an adult;
- create a joined up and aligned structural response with measurable targets that go beyond bricks and mortar solutions;
- embed evaluation and research frameworks into responses to child and youth homelessness; and
- target investment in evidenced-based models that we know achieve better outcomes for children and young people.
Alongside NSW peak body YFoundations and other youth homelessness organisations, we are calling on the Australian Government to agree to develop a National Strategy to End Child and Youth Homelessness.
Children and young people should not be an afterthought to adult responses to homelessness. Their experiences are different from that of adults, but their right to a safe and stable place to call home and support services that meet their unique needs is no less important or urgent.
This #HomelessnessWeek, please take a minute to sign the petition calling on the Albanese government to commit to a standalone child and youth homelessness and housing strategy.
You can add your name to the petition here: Develop a standalone national strategy to end child and youth homelessness – Yfoundations
Judy Barraclough is the CEO of Youth Off The Streets.
To find out the five facts every Australian should know about youth homelessness, click here.