News - Report recommends roadmap to eliminate youth homelessness
|
Contributor: Andrew Lowcock.
Source: Infoxchange Australia.
Posted: 10-04-2008
|
Youth homelessness has doubled in Australia in the last 20 years, according to a new independent report, which provides a ten step 'roadmap' for strategic action to reverse the trend.
In 2006, about 22,000 Australian 12 to 18-year-olds have no fixed address, and are living in temporary shelter like youth refuges and boarding houses, 'coach-surfing' at a friend's place or sleeping on the streets, while more than 36,000 young people were using Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services.
The National Youth Commission's report, 'Australia's Homeless Youth', found that the likely total of 50,000 to 70,000 homeless children and young people was at risk of increasing due to housing affordability problems and the stretched capacity of state care services.
The report, funded by the philanthropic Caledonia Foundation, recommends:
- The development of a National Homelessness Action Plan, with an aim to eliminate youth homelessness by 2030.
- A national affordable housing strategy with multi-billion dollar investment in community and public housing.
- Annual funding of at least $30 million to co-ordinate local youth service delivery.
- Greater resourcing of early intervention programs, which have been credited for reducing the amount of homeless teenagers.
- A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry into state care and protection.
- National drug, alcohol and mental health treatment programs for young homeless people.
Many of the problems identified were the same as in Human Rights Commissioner Brian Burdekin's original report on youth homelessness, released in 1989.
"Our approach has been firmly solution-focused in an attempt to ensure that in twenty years, another inquiry will not report that youth homelessness is still a disturbing problem in Australian society – that would be admission of an extraordinary failure," the report's authors wrote.
Melbourne Citymission chief executive officer Anne Turley said she wasn't surprised to learn of the increase in youth homelessness, with demand for services far exceeding supply.
"Young people on low incomes or on income support are not able to compete in the current housing market," Ms Turley said.
"For example, a 20-year-old who is single and on a full-time training program receives a maximum of $226 a week, including rent assistance and Youth Allowance.
"The median rent for a one bedroom flat in a low-cost suburb in western Melbourne is $130 a week – leaving $13.70 a day for food, transport, utilities, clothing and education fees."
Ms Turley strongly backed the implementation of the 'foyer' model of youth housing, which combines stable accommodation with education, training and employment opportunities, and support to learn independent living skills.
Council to Homeless Persons youth policy officer Jane Lazzari said young people were seen as 'risky' tenants and increasingly unlikely to find private rental accommodation.
The Federal Government will release a White Paper on Homelessness later in 2008 to "set a clear plan of action to improve the social and economic participation of people who are homeless".
For more information on the report, visit the National Youth Commission website.
Attached file 1:
'Australia's Homeless Youth' (PDF document, 2.26 megabytes).
|
|
