Urgent action needed on homelessness
An integrated national homelessness strategy is urgently required to combat youth homelessness, according to Peter Kell, CEO of ANGLICARE Sydney.
“We must put an end to the situation where one in two young people are turned away from emergency shelter every night,” said Mr Kell warning that “national targets and performance measures will be needed if homeless youth are to get a fair go as Australia’s housing affordability crisis intensifies.”
As one of 91 community groups which made written submissions to the National Youth Commission’s (NYC’s) inquiry into Youth Homelessness, ANGLICARE (Sydney) supported the call for an increase in the provision of crisis housing as key to transforming Australia’s poor national record of assisting young people caught in the cycle of homelessness.
“We also recommended greater community education and early intervention servicesbe extended throughout Australia to highlight and put in place effective preventative strategies which assist in times of crisis within families.
“Homelessness need not be an endemic social and economic problem that adversely impacts community and excludes our young people from education and employment opportunities.
“The NYC has proposed a comprehensive plan covering the prevention of youth homelessness; intervening early; supporting young people in need and stopping those assisted from falling back into homelessness.
“Now it’s up to the government and community to embrace the recommendations,” Mr Kell said. “We need to support the plan outlined by the NYC and make the money and resources available in order to break the cycle of youth homelessness and help young people establish stable lives and connections with the wider community.”
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Editors please note:
ANGLICARE (Sydney) is the urban mission and welfare arm of the Anglican Church and one of the largest Christian welfare organisations in Australia.
It has a number of programs that assist homeless youth and youth at risk of homelessness:
• The Street Outreach Program, which provides support for homeless youth, and youth at risk of becoming homeless in Parramatta for people aged 12 to 25 years.
• The South East Homeless Persons Program, located at Bondi, which provides advocacy, counselling, tenancy advice, provision of financial assistance and a drop-in centre.
• The Out of Home Care Program, which includes two foster care programs, Temporary Foster Care and Permanent Foster Care.
• The Paul Street Adolescent Residential Program, which is a residence in Blacktown providing a home fro up to six young people.
• Lisgar Youth Support, basedat Hurstville, which provides assistance to clients through an Independent Living Program, offering a supported independent housing service and an independent living and life skills education service.
• The Carramar/Early Interventions Program, which provides accommodation and other support to young parents aged 16-25 years.
• *Reconnect, an early intervention program, which provides case management and group work services to young people, including Indo-Chinese young people aged 12-18 years at risk of homelessness, and their families, in the Fairfield and Liverpool areas.
• Job Placement Employment Training (JPET), which provides disadvantaged and/or unemployed young people aged 15-21 years, who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the Fairfield and Liverpool Local Government Areas.
• Juvenile Offender Support Program (JOSP), which provides intensive support for Indo-Chinese young offenders inside and outside detention centres and then those who are released back into the community in the Fairfield, Liverpool, Holroyd, Auburn and Bankstown areas.
Media contact: Leonie Savage on 0411 779 337.
