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.
Comments