One in six Australian adolescents have reported experiencing homelessness at least once, according to the findings of a Mission Australia report.
Released with a warning that homelessness among young Australians may climb even further without greater action to address the issue, the report, Staying home: A Youth Survey report on young people’s experience of homelessness, found 17.1 per cent of young people aged 15 to 19 had experienced some form of homelessness including those who had done so as part of a family, experienced time without a fixed address, lived in a refuge or transitional accommodation or spent time couch surfing.
GRAPHIC: Courtesy of Mission Australia
In many cases the experience of homelessness was not an isolated incident and of the 13 per cent who said they had spent time couch surfing, almost one in five reported doing so before reaching the age of 12.
The report’s findings, which draw on the results of the organisation’s 2019 Youth Survey involving some 22,673 respondants, also showed that young people who had been homeless were twice as likely to be bullied in the year prior to the survey than those who hadn’t been homeless and twice as likely to report psychological distress.
Those who have experienced homelessness were also four times more likely to feel sad or very sad, more likely to express concern over issues such as family conflict, mental health, financial security and suicide, and more likely to identify issues like financial difficulty or lack of family support as barriers to reaching their work or study goals.
GRAPHIC: Courtesy of Mission Australia
James Toomey, CEO of Mission Australia – a national Christian charity that provides a range of services in areas including homelessness prevention, mental health, and disability support, said the report reveals the magnitude of youth and child homelessness in Australia – something which, he said, “cannot be accepted as just the way things are”.
“We can and must take action to make real and lasting change and commit to ending youth homelessness in our country,” he said. “If we stand idle, too many young people will continue to be pushed into homelessness and will be on the back-foot as they transition to adulthood. Many will miss out on vital education and employment opportunities as they shift from one inadequate and temporary dwelling to another.”
Toomey said the report showed that without a “safe place to call home”, “young people are facing the torment of bullying, mental health concerns and ongoing family conflict. Particularly for children and young people, homelessness can be an isolating, destabilising and often traumatic experience.”
Mission Australia have released a raft of recommendations to address the issue of homelessness among young people including developing a national homelessness strategy with a special focus on youth, the funding of tailored youth-specific employment services and increasing social security payments such as the Youth Allowance and Commonwealth Rent Assistance to increase housing affordability.
Toomey said that “early intervention” to prevent young people continuing on a path of homelessness is key and that the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic had only further emphasised that “safe, affordable and appropriate housing is essential for a young person’s economic, mental, physical and social wellbeing”.
“We urge governments to do everything it takes so that young people can avoid homelessness, or move quickly out of homelessness if it does occur, so they are adequately supported to thrive now, and into their futures…” he said. “While moving towards economic recovery, we anticipate that even more young people will be pushed into homelessness if there remains little investment in social and affordable homes.”
Toomey called for governments to commit to investing in 500,000 new social and affordable homes by 2030 nationally and for the development of youth-specific social housing options.
“There is a current opportunity for government investment in social and affordable housing to not only address the rising rates of homelessness including youth homelessness, but also provide economic stimulus and jobs as the Australian economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
