New ACT youth housing aimed at ‘stopping trajectory’ of homelessness

Youth in the ACT will soon be able to access more holistic, proactive accommodation services thanks to The Salvation Army and two partner organisations.

BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE

The Salvation Army has won a major tender to provide homelessness services for young people in the Australian Capital Territory.

This new funding will support the delivery of 127 youth housing beds across crisis, transitional and longer-term accommodation options in the ACT.

These beds are an expansion of the 24-bed existing crisis and transitional beds offered by The Salvation Army in the ACT. The rollout began on 1 July and includes renovating an existing apartment complex in Narrabundah and other locations across the territory, including Chisholm, Florey and Duffy.

NSW/ACT State Manager for Youth Tom Austin said the purpose of the proposed service was to prevent young people from re-entering the homelessness system through long-term housing and care. He said young people were typically referred to multiple crisis services with little continuity. Tom said he hoped to eventually see young people permanently exit the system and find their own solutions.

“You tend to get young people flipping from one crisis service to another, to another, to another,” he said.

“What we are really hoping is that by being able to provide [a] much longer-term kind of care, young people will be able to engage in education, finish education, get a job, and basically avoid cycling through the homelessness system again.”

The funding, secured by Salvation Army Youth Services in partnership with Salvos Housing, also includes partnership arrangements with specialist family mediation agency Conflict Resolution Service and specialist mental health service Grand Pacific Health, the lead agent for Headspace in the ACT. This initiative provides responsive housing solutions alongside holistic care to support young people along the journey to independence.

Tom said relationship breakdown, generally family breakdown caused more than 60 per cent of homelessness in this age group, according to Salvation Army research, in which many were forced to couch-surfed or sleep in cars. Tom said besides relationship breakdown, drug and alcohol dependence and mental ill health were often factors contributing to homelessness.

He said the vast majority of young people The Salvation Army encountered in the ACT had also experienced out-of-home care in their foundational years.

“Young people who’ve experienced adverse childhood events, young people with trauma histories, they tend to be majorly overrepresented in the youth homelessness statistics,” Tom said.

“By providing that kind of long-term kind of therapeutic care, we're hoping to shift or stop that trajectory of young people growing up and ending up in adult services.”

Tom said local corps, Doorways, Moneycare and Salvos Stores had all been proactive in assisting with the new initiatives and ongoing care for young people experiencing homelessness. He said, in particular, Gungahlin Corps had been really supportive of the new project.

“They’ve been incredibly helpful and supportive throughout the induction process and establishment phase,” Tom said.