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HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING
2 HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS
Youth homelessness remains a big issue in NSW with Project Youth supporting 433 12-24 year olds over the last financial year to find safe housing options. At Project Youth
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we are able to offer a range of options including crisis refuges, semi-independent refuges, transitional housing and rent choice youth subsidy. However, this is not enough and in addition to the 162 young people we provided housing for, there were another 271 we provided wrap around support, advocacy or advice as we did not have the beds available to provide accommodation options to all the referrals we receive. Throughout COVID we have seen this gap widen further and the demand for social and affordable housing increasing.
The majority of our referrals are 15-17 year olds and the main presenting reason young people are referred to us for housing support is due to family/relationship breakdown.
When we reviewed the support plans and outcomes with young people transitioning out of our housing program, 95% who had set support goals achieved their goals either partially or fully, with the majority, 90%, transitioning to safe housing options including family, friends, private rental, social housing, other service housing. Of the remaining 10%, 1% were incarcerated and 9% disengaged and we had no further contact.
To ensure ongoing learning and development the Housing team conducted 34 audits over the last year, as a part of the quality assurance cycle, to ensure we are consistently reflecting and improving our practice and the impact to young people. Aligned to our quality assurance cycle we also embed feedback, advice and engagement from young people which has led to changes in policy and procedure and a new program being developed.
During COVID all of our accommodation services continued delivering our full-service provision with no reductions or changes to our offer. There was a need for Project Youth to increase the casual staffing pool this year to be able to manage unexpected staff leave due to high levels of COVID transmission and to provide additional support for young people to re-engage in education and employment (where COVID had impacted their employment) to prevent rent arrears and tenancy issues. We also had a number of young people contract COVID over the Christmas period and additional support was provided including delivery of food/medications and updating young people with NSW Health advice.
Project Youth is committed to youth homelessness reduction and prevention and the housing team work tirelessly to support young people in both removing the barriers to sustaining housing and preventing homeless in the first place.
Our Youth Homeless and Housing Programs in 2021/22 included:
CRISIS REFUGES (PENNY’S & THE BRIDGE)
Project Youth has two crisis refuges called The Bridge (in Sutherland Shire) and Penny’s (in Georges River). Both refuges support young people in crisis by providing short term accommodation and intensive trauma informed support to move from crisis to semi- supported services, return to their family home or into transitional housing (either at Project Youth or another service). This prevents homelessness, provides living skills and access to services to support social and economic stability. Some of the key areas the staff work on with the young people includes health (physical and mental), family restoration, education, employment, community connections, practical skills, confidence building, accessing identification and benefits, and increasing resilience. Each refuge can accommodate five young people at a time for up to three months. While under 16-year-old referrals remained a trend within the crisis refuges, we have also noticed an increase in young people aged 17 & 18 requiring crisis accommodation after escaping
domestic violence within the family home over the past year. Staff have engaged in strengthening our relationship with the Sutherland DCJ office to increase the support and accommodation options for under 16’s accommodated in refuges with significant and complex needs.
SEMI-INDEPENDENT HOUSING
Project Youth have three semi-supported housing programs - The Hut, Henry’s and Jacaranda Cottage. We provide 12 beds across our semi-supported provision where young people can be accommodated and supported for up to 12-18 months. The Hut and Henry’s are managed internally by Project Youth staff while Jacaranda Cottage is commissioned by Project Youth, and managed through Kingsway Community Care. All young people in our semi-supported provision are supported to transition to independence through an individualised support plan.
TRANSITIONAL HOUSING
The Transitional Housing program supports young people aged between 16-24 years experiencing homelessness, with accommodation and support for up to 18 months. We provide housing options across the Sutherland Shire, Georges River and Bayside Local Government Areas. The transitional housing program also assists young people through individualised support plans to address personal, social and educational barriers that may prevent them from accessing the private rental market. Through consultations with young people, the team continue to review and update processes to ensure the program is working effectively with young people from referral and intake through to outcomes and transitioning from our service.
RENT CHOICE SUBSIDY FOR YOUTH
Rent Choice Subsidy for Youth is a Department of Communities and Justice product providing time- limited financial assistance and support to young people who have had difficulty finding suitable housing to assist them to access appropriate, affordable and safe housing in the private rental market. Financial assistance is provided as a rental subsidy for up to three years following the establishment of a private tenancy. supporting young people to refer into the program. Once accepted we work with the young person to find a suitable property and develop an individualised plan with a focus on supports required to sustain a tenancy and improve individual training and employment outcomes.
YOUTH HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN
Youth Homelessness Matters Day this year was held at our Miranda Youth Centre. We opened our doors to welcome young people from our housing programs as well as members of the community to come and chat with workers and pick up resources. We offered donated home goods to 30 young people and supported our community to learn more about our work and our housing programs. AS a part of the day we set up a board asking attendees to discuss youth homelessness, in particular what our local governments and politicians should be doing about it. These messages were then passed on to our local politicians, urging them to listen and understand the real and growing issues of youth homelessness in the areas they cover.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
2HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING
433 young people were supported in our housing funded programs 162 young people were provided with accommodation 62 young people were housed in crisis refuges 18 young people were supported in the 3 semiindependent houses 82 young people were supported through transitional housing and Rent Choice Youth 68% of referrals to RCY were referred through transitional housing 107 young people moved on from Project Youth accommodation in this period 91% of young people transitioned from Project Youth with positive outcomes 100% of young people gained or improved their living skills 271 young people who could not receive housing were supported through external supports and advocacy 1,187 community members reached through the YHM day campaign in person and through social media. Donations of food, toiletries and cooking items were received and distributed to young people.
