Better care: breaking the cycle for homeless children and young people

New AHURI research reveals supported accommodation services often fail to meet the needs of unaccompanied children and young people and proposes a care continuum to guide Australia to a better system.

University of Tasmania Associate Professor Dr Catherine Robinson, who led the research, said the scale of need was under-recognised.

“Public reporting on those accessing homelessness services has focused on ages 15+.  For this project, customised data was requested from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) that allowed expansion of reporting to children aged 12+,” Dr Robinson said.

“Following our work, the AIHW has expanded reporting to ages 12+ long-term.”

The team’s analysis revealed 12,034 children aged 12–17 years and 30,618 young people aged 18–24 years were supported by SHS while unaccompanied by a parent or guardian during 2023–24. Combined, this group made up 15% of all SHS clients.

Despite this, researchers found child and youth homelessness received limited attention in government policy.

Researchers interviewed 51 unaccompanied people aged 14+ and 29 homelessness and youth outreach practitioners in Tasmania and Victoria.

“Interviews revealed supported accommodation was vital for the wellbeing of children and young people, but services were under-resourced to meet their needs,” Dr Robinson said.
 

A system not designed for the needs of children and young people

Child and youth homelessness was found to have distinct drivers from adult homelessness, mainly stemming from lack of guardianship and care, rather than housing affordability – although this could still be a factor.

“Child and youth homelessness requires different, developmentally-appropriate solutions,” Dr Robinson said. “Children and young people depend on services for caregiver-like support and guidance, and without it, education, employment and wellbeing efforts are unlikely to succeed.”

The research found that supported accommodation design and resourcing is commonly misaligned with the needs of unaccompanied children and young people – a phenomenon labelled ‘care conditionality’.

“Care conditionality describes an under-resourced system which is forced to prioritise those with lower needs for support,” Dr Robinson said.

“We found young people with complex needs can become stuck in cycles of short-term accommodation and that children may not be able to access services at all.”
 

A new approach

The research proposed four principles for policy and practice development to better align services to young people’s needs.

1. Include unaccompanied children and young people in policy and service design

Government commitments to engage youth advisory councils on key policy areas could be expanded to include children and young people who have experienced homelessness.

2. Design and deliver age-appropriate supported accommodation services

A shift from housing-focused services to care-centred models and better workforce training and resourcing is required.

The research proposes a care continuum model that features youth hubs as a single point of entry and contact, relationship-based care and flexible family reunification.

3. Match service design and resourcing to developmental needs

Service design should support longer stays in stable, homely environments that promote recovery, health, education, employment, life skills, and support navigation.

Staff-to-client ratios should be introduced, with a two-worker model set as a minimum national standard for services accommodating unaccompanied children and young people.

4. Strengthen responses to homeless young people nationally

A National Child and Youth Housing and Homelessness Plan would drive service innovation and good practice across states and territories. Researchers also called for a fund enabling services to evaluate and share practice models.

The research was dedicated to unaccompanied children and young people known to homelessness services who have died.

“We know there is an increased death rate for children and young people who have experienced homelessness. This is a distressing reminder of the need to remain laser-focused on unconditionally meeting their care needs,” Dr Robinson said.

The research was undertaken for AHURI by researchers from University of Tasmania and Swinburne University of Technology.