Page 135 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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I think it is important to explain briefly what homelessness actually looks like for those in this cohort. These are not young people who are facing homelessness along with their families. Rather, these are young people who are facing homelessness because they cannot be with their families. A qualitative study released last year by the Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Child Protection Studies paints a vivid picture of what unaccompanied homelessness for the territory’s children and youth actually looks like.
In nearly all cases, children who find themselves in this situation are seeking to escape homes where they have experienced violence, abuse or neglect, often accompanied by equally challenging issues that co-exist within these abusive and neglectful homes. These include familial substance abuse by parents or siblings and parental mental illness and disability.
The service model proposed by the Youth Coalition, and strongly supported by Families ACT, ACTOSS and ACT Shelter, seeks to respond to the primary risk factor leading to youth homelessness, family conflict and breakdown by intervening early, reducing family conflict, changing life trajectories away from involvement with statutory services, reducing disengagement from education, and building the capacity of the youth and family sector to engage in family-focused youth work. Similar homelessness programs in other Australian jurisdictions have been shown to be extremely cost effective, creating $12 in social value for every dollar invested.
A similar proposal has been put forward by the Canberra PCYC, which already enjoys a strong reputation for providing programs that divert young people away from crime and the criminal justice system and programs that help young people to re-engage with education. Their specific proposal is for a support accommodation unit for young people under the age of 16.
This residential facility would create a safe, healthy and positive environment for youth, providing temporary and short-term accommodation away from environments that can lead to unaccompanied homelessness and its attendant risks, such as living on the streets or couch surfing. One of the main goals of this accommodation unit would be to work with the whole family in order to resolve the family conflict and breakdown that led to the homelessness in the first place.
PCYC staff share the concern that this territory currently does not provide any accommodation services for young people under the age of 16. They have had experience with youth who have been picked up by ACT Policing at night. When it was deemed unsuitable for the young people to be returned to their homes, they have been placed in the watch house overnight instead, thus giving them their first taste of entering the justice system. Surely we can do something more appropriate than this for children who are afraid to return home. I commend this proposal to the government as well.
Finally, I commend to this government all the other requests from various community services providers for funding for other non-residential youth diversion programs. On paper, this government has a commitment to youth diversion. Unfortunately, too
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