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📢 New Report Released: Youth Survey Homelessness Report 2024 - The Unfair Divide 📢 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. JOIN US TODAY #LegislatetoEndChildPoverty #ValuingChildrenInitiative #Nochildinpoverty

When young people experience homelessness, it makes everything harder. Our new Youth Survey report ‘The unfair divide: Disadvantage faced by young people who are homeless’ shines a light on the challenges these young people face, across multiple areas of their life, compared to those with stable housing. Ending homelessness for young people will require a range of approaches to make sure that experiences of homelessness are rare, brief and non-recurring. Learn more about the experiences of youth homelessness and solutions in our report. Download your copy today and register for our webinar on Tuesday 6 August. Register for the webinar: https://lnkd.in/g2PxXAJY

If you're interested in learning more about how our youth are facing homelessness, what it looks like, and what can be done to help, join Mission Australia's free webinar on August 6th, where we will review findings from our new youth survey. https://lnkd.in/g2PxXAJY

Our new youth homelessness report demonstrates the harrowing impact of homelessness on young lives, revealing nearly one in ten Youth Survey 2023 participants experienced homelessness in the past year.   Whether enduring the harsh realities of sleeping rough, seeking refuge in crisis or transitional accommodation, or couch surfing, our Youth Survey confirms the experience of homelessness for young people can be distressing and scarring.   Every young person deserves a safe, secure home as a launchpad into adulthood. Empowering young people to start their journey to adulthood on a solid footing can transform lives.

This new report reveals the troubling reality that 1 in 10 young people (aged 15 to 19) in Queensland who responded to Mission Australia's Youth Survey experienced homelessness in the previous 12 months. It highlights the profound impact that homelessness can have on a young person's wellbeing. They were more likely than their peers to suffer from a mental health condition, face financial hardship, struggle with loneliness and six times more likely to have strained or poor family relationships. The report includes a range of recommendations for proactively addressing youth homelessness and supporting young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The recommendations include calls for more youth foyers to be built to provide secure housing with wrap-around on-site supports for young people and for investment by government into a Homelessness Prevention Transformation Fund. #homelessness #youthfoyers #youthhomelessness

Is there a teenager in your life? Remember back to when you were a teenager? Now: can you imagine what their/your life would have been like with nowhere safe and stable to call home? 🙋♂️ 🙋🏾♀️ Our Youth Survey report on youth homelessness shows that life can be very grim indeed, for the 1 in 10 teenagers (aged 15-19) who experienced homelessness. Those young people had significantly higher levels of loneliness, mental ill-health and barriers to education than their peers living in safe stable homes. 😥 The good news is that - despite these challenges - most young people experiencing homelessness are still keen to study and get ahead. Mission Australia works with many homeless teenagers whose resilience, strength and potential is an inspiration 🌟 And the other good news is that we know what works to END YOUTH HOMELESSNESS: * support young people in family conflict so they can stay at home if that's safe and ok; * build youth-appropriate housing for the kids who can't stay at home; * provide the caring support they need to grow into independent adults; * raise the rate of youth welfare payments, so they can afford the rent and cover the essentials; * invest in prevention, so that youth homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring. 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 🏡 Find out more: read the report https://lnkd.in/gmyEd6vH and/or come along to the webinar next week https://lnkd.in/gwub9Fiq.

The Office of Homeless Youth and A Way Home WA have released a new report that takes a deep-dive into unaccompanied youth and young adult homelessness. The report pairs data analysis with perspectives from over 100 young people who’ve experienced homelessness, service providers and other stakeholders from across the state. It presents a roadmap and vision for young people without stable housing to receive the help they need within their community. While the work is far from complete, the report’s findings show that even when faced with a problem as complex and dynamic as youth homelessness, progress can be made with focused funding, attention, and public-private partnerships that provide capacity for innovation. Read the full report: https://bit.ly/48GWuAN Learn more: https://bit.ly/3Tfvzb1 Artist credit: Cristina “Pink” Varela

Reflecting on Progress: The 2024 WA State Homeless Youth Landscape Scan As a contributor to the 2016 report and the founder of LifePoint, the model program for strategy 6 - integrating behavioral health into youth homeless programs, I am both thrilled and inspired by the insights and advancements detailed in the newly released 2024 WA state homeless youth landscape scan. This comprehensive report, a collaboration between the Office of Homeless Youth and A Way Home WA, represents a significant step forward in our collective understanding and responsiveness to the challenges faced by unaccompanied youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. By blending data analysis with firsthand perspectives from over 100 young individuals, service providers, and stakeholders across the state, the report not only offers a roadmap but also a vision for a future where young people have the support they need within their communities. The evolution from the 2016 scan to today is evident in the many new initiatives, growing legislative support, and housing and program developments across Washington State. LifePoint, once a singular model program integrating behavioral health, has now expanded into an evidence-based continuum of health-transition services for youth and young adults, showcasing the impact of focused funding, youth voice, and innovative public-private partnerships. While our collective journey ahead is long and the work far from complete, the progress made thus far gives hope. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we come together to address the complex and dynamic, and we start by listening. As we continue to build on this momentum, let’s keep pushing for a world where every youth and young adult has the stability, support, and opportunities they deserve. #endyouthhomelessness #youthvoice #behavioralhealthintegration

Tonight’s the night! Tonight I’m sleeping out at the MCG, joining close to 1000 others, to fight to end youth homelessness! With more than 100,000 people on the social housing waitlist, it is estimated that at least 60,000 additional social housing properties are needed across Victoria over the next 10 years - just to maintain current levels. There are more than 3,200 young people aged 15-24 who are turning up to homelessness services alone each day. They don’t have the safety or support that all young people need. Together we have the power to end youth homelessness. https://lnkd.in/d3Tmabag

💡 How can we tell if someone experience is going to benefit from one of our homelessness services? The strongest predictors of a positive housing outcome for people experiencing homelessness are: 📅 How long they stayed with our service, 💰 If they received brokerage – small funds of discretionary money we can use to help that person quickly with whatever they need, typically it includes things like buying a mattress, paying for new identity documents and 🤝 And how intensive the support they received. 💥Knowing what the barriers are means we can figure out ways to remove or overcome them and help more people exit homelessness. Interested in the research? Read more: https://lnkd.in/gxjGMMs6