Mission Australia has just released the Youth Survey Homelessness Report 2024: The Unfair Divide. Using data from nearly 20,000 responses, this report compares the experiences of young people who have experienced homelessness in the past year with those who have not.
Key findings include:
📢Close to 1 in 10 Youth Survey respondents experienced homelessness in the previous year.
📢Almost half experienced loneliness all or most of the time (47% compared to 18% with stable housing).
📢2 in 5 identified as having a mental health condition (41% compared to 13%).
📢Close to half found it hard to fit in and socialise with other people (46% compared to 26%).
📢Experience of strained or poor family relationships was seven times higher (34% compared to 5%).
📢2 in 5 sought financial help or could not afford essentials like food, housing, school or transport (42% compared to 10%).
Some findings highlighted the resilience of young people with experience of homelessness:
📢Both groups had a similar level of participation in extracurricular activities and groups (>80%).
📢There was a high level of engagement in education for both cohorts (close to 90%).
Recommendations detailed in the report include:
📢Instigate a $500 million Homelessness Prevention Transformation Fund, delivering targeted prevention programs and policy reform for groups of young people with elevated or immediate risk of homelessness.
📢Increase youth housing options in social housing and private rental, including:
📢Develop and maintain a national pool of at least 15,000 dedicated social housing youth tenancies;
📢Construct ten 40-unit Youth Foyers over the next three years.
📢Support youth tenancies through early intervention tenancy support programs.
📢Increase income support and improve rental subsidies, including:
📢Increase JobSeeker and Youth Allowance to $80/day;
📢Increase the maximum threshold of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 60% and review it together with other rental subsidies, including specific new measures to address the rental gap to remove disincentives for landlords to grow youth-specific housing.
📢Screen early for homelessness risk through schools.
Rebuild family relationships and households if safe, including by expanding the Reconnect program.
📢Implement more crisis support and accommodation responses for young people that are adequately-funded, person-centred and located according to demand.
Read the full report below.
