Mission Australia survey reveals extent of homelessness

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Mission Australia says one in ten young people have faced homelessness. Those questioned were Australians aged 15 to 19, with some revealing they were facing financial hardship because of poor family relationships and mental health issues.

Transcript

00:00Homelessness for this group is particularly challenging and really harrowing.

00:06When you think of being between 15 and 19 years of age, you are already vulnerable.

00:11You're on the cusp of moving from adolescence into adulthood.

00:15And what you really need is a safe and secure home so that you can meet all of the challenges

00:19that those changes will incur.

00:23And what we've seen from the young people who've responded, because they don't have

00:28that and they're in this particularly harrowing situation, they're more likely to experience

00:32mental health issues, feel lonely, isolated, socially not being able to fit in, and as

00:38you said, the financial hardships as well.

00:40So it is a really harrowing and a really uncertain time for them.

00:45Most homelessness is hidden, you know, 94% of people who are homeless, you'll never see

00:49them because they are couchsurfing.

00:52I guess we should sort of remove that picture of the rough sleepers, which is generally

00:56what you would see.

00:57So young people, and like their adult counterparts as well, face a range of places where they

01:03try to find housing security, but it's not easy, and the results of that are just incredibly

01:09profound on them for the rest of their lives.

01:12So immediate solutions would be to also increase Commonwealth Rental Assistance by 60%, increase

01:19JobSeeker or Youth Allowance to $80 a day.

01:22Both of those measures would actually help bring young people out of poverty.

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