The Australian Christian Lobby is calling for a greater focus on building resilience in marriages and couple relationships as part of early intervention efforts aimed at preventing homelessness.
The call, made this week, came after the release of a new study showing that the cost of caring for the homeless is costing taxpayers $5.5 million a person. The Lifecourse Institutional Costs of Homelessness for Vulnerable Groups study also showed that intervening early to stop children becoming homeless could significantly reduce the associated costs.
Lyle Shelton, the ACL’s chief-of-staff, said one of the ways to ensure that child homelessness is tackled effectively is to encourage couples to stay together and provide a stable home for children.
“Children are made vulnerable because of the breakdown of marriage, and as the Minister for Homelessness Brendan O”Connor has suggested, early intervention mechanisms for families should be in place to see long-term results in reducing the number of homeless young people,” he said.
“The earliest intervention we can take as a community is to ensure couples are well-equipped before they have children to form a long-lasting, and preferably life-long, partnership.”