Page 1870 - Week 09 - Thursday, 19 October 1989
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A $400,000 complex for homeless youth has been described as a "mistake" after it was severely damaged by residents, left vacant for long periods and finally handed over to the CCAE for student accommodation.
This revelation is a major embarrassment for the ACT Government and ACT Administration and comes at the start of a review of youth housing in the ACT and amid calls for more low-cost accommodation.
The complex, consisting of two 10-bedroom houses in Bowman Street, Macquarie, was built by the then Department of Territories and Local Government in 1984 at a cost of $400,000 as low-cost accommodation for disadvantaged young people aged between 16 and 25.
The houses were leased as an annexe to the Ainslie Village Hostel, but soon fell into disrepair with reports of windows and doors being broken, and the grounds left in a filthy and unkempt state. After $10,000 was spent repairing the complex, the lease was relinquished last year and handed over to the CCAE, and is now used as a students' residence.
A spokesperson for the Housing Trust said he admitted Bowman House was a "mistake".
"In retrospect, the problem was building two 10-bedroom houses so close together with homeless, unsupervised young people in close proximity to three licensed premises", he said.
A spokesperson from the office of the Minister for Housing and Urban Services, Di Ford, said Bowman House was a case of the "right concept in the wrong place". I think the Minister has made a few comments recently to indicate that she certainly does not want that to happen again and I certainly hope that she will indeed follow through there.
Supported houses have been in existence for young people for some time now. There are many groups which do this very well, such as the Richmond Fellowship, the Salvation Army and CANA. I saw one recently - the YWCA, for young girls between about 16 and 18. There was a young girl of about 20, a mature student, who worked there, who was sort of responsible and the operation worked very well. Indeed, it seems that the 20 dwellings referred to by the Minister might be a similar project to that and its potential is excellent.
I am concerned about the 30 dwellings to be allocated to groups living independently and I think, if we do get groups of young people, certainly in the 16 to 18 age bracket, with no supervision, there is a great potential for damage to be done to the house and for those kids, who
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