Geelong, Australia
As many as one in 20 Australian young people aged 15-to-19-years-old reported experiencing homelessness for the first time during the COVID pandemic, according to a new survey from Mission Australia. The figure is a significant increase on the one in 25 who reported experiencing homelessness in a 2017 report.
Data from the organisation’s latest annual survey of Australian youth found that the rate of those who experienced first-time homelessness moved up from 3.9 per cent in a 2017 report to 4.8 per cent for the 2021 report which covers the period from April, 2020, to August, 2021. The results, which were drawn from the organisation’s annual landmark survey of more than 20,000 young people located across the country, also found that three in five of those who reported experiencing homelessness for the first time were female.
Sharon Callister, CEO of Mission Australia, said the rise was “really alarming”.
Sharon Callister. PICTURE: Courtesy of Mission Australia
“When you do a snapshot, which we did between 2017 and when we did the report last year, you can see that it is alarming the way that the statistics are going…It’s not getting better…and it’s such a tragic, tragic situation in a country like Australia…The statistics are just awful.”
The survey also found that the proportion of young people with disabilities who experienced homelessness for the first time rose even more sharply, from 5.5 per cent in 2017 to 13.6 per cent in 2021.
Callister described the rise as “incredibly significant”.
“People living with a disability face a lot of challenges many of us don’t face,” she said, adding that these these challenges were only made harder by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those examining the survey data identified five risk factors for first-time homelessness during COVID-19 including conflict and poor family relationships, concerns about domestic and family violence, psychological distress, experiences of unfair treatment or discrimination and the negative impact of COVID-19 on employment and relationships.
Callister said that the COVID-19 pandemic – with its accompanying impacts including lockdowns, increased isolation and job losses – saw these risk factors have a greater impact than they had in 2017.
“Obviously the survey…was done during COVID and that looked very different to the 2017…” said Callister. “[T]here are a lot of contributing factors [as to] why youth homelessness increased at that particular point in time.”
Callister said that while Mission Australia was delighted the Federal Government had committed to a national plan for housing and homelessness, “it needs to be fully funded”.
She said the organisation is also calling for a greater investment in social and affordable housing, increases to rental subsidies and more youth-specific housing and support across Australia.
“We also talk about preventatiive strategies….[I]f we put the money into prevention in the first place, the outcomes for the individuals who are facing homelessness, but also the community more broadly, are far more beneficial…” Callister said. “It does require resourcing and there has been an insufficient investment in resources.”
Among the preventative measures Mission Australia is calling for is the introduction of universal risk-screening for homelessness at schools as well as by other community groups, the provision of schools with adequate funding to respond to students’ mental health needs and increasing the availability of family support services.
“It requires motivation, it requires funding and it requires coordination at all levels.”
