Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Deputy Speaker, thank you to the honourable member for raising this issue of housing as a Matter of Public Importance. I turn to the issue of youth homelessness. We know that 39 per cent of Tasmania’s homeless population is under the age of 25, and that 12 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds in Tasmania are homeless.
Young people face homelessness for quite different reasons to adults. Those reasons include family violence, abuse or neglect. Young people are maybe unable to break into the private rental market. We know that young people who are ageing out of out-of-home-care are at significant risk of homelessness once they leave the foster care and out-of-home-care systems.
Homelessness in youth is not just an issue for them now; it also places young people at greater risk of homelessness throughout their life. It is important that we target solutions that meet youth needs so that they can be supported now and are less likely to have ongoing issues with homelessness as they get older.
The government has reported their response on housing, happily telling us all the work that they are doing in this area, the number of houses they have built, the youth‑to‑independence spaces that have been built – just yesterday, they announced more of those. That investment is much needed, but it is not enough and it is not doing what we need for this state in sufficient amounts.
I have been speaking with youth advocacy groups and youth homelessness service providers and they are very clear that the homelessness services available for young people in Tasmania are not sufficient to meet the level of need. They also report that the youth housing options lack coordination and do not have wraparound support for younger people’s broader needs, so those particular issues causing young people to be homeless are not being addressed by building more buildings. We need to be looking at strategies and actions that will address the issues more broadly for young people who are experiencing homelessness and who are at risk of homelessness.
The services and advocacy groups also report that outcomes are not being evaluated and the suitability and success of programs are not being measured or reported to service providers. While work is being done there is not enough being done, and it is not being monitored properly so that we can see where more work needs to happen and where we need to turn our action in future.
More specifically, there is no Tasmanian youth homelessness strategy. It has long been called for by youth homelessness service providers that there be an overarching broad strategy that pulls together all services for young people. The question is also where this might fit within the Tasmanian Housing Strategy, which does not include specific strategies for youth homelessness, so it is difficult to know how strategies for youth homelessness fit with strategies for housing more broadly, how they fit and work together. That is a question service providers to young people experiencing homelessness are asking.
There is also doubt and questions about which department, Housing or the Department for Education, Children and Young People, takes the main responsibility for youth homelessness responses. That makes it difficult for service providers to know who to go to when they have questions. While money is being invested, it is unclear how successful these investments are. The youth homelessness service providers went to the government on 11 June, they met with Minister Ellis and presented him with a number of questions which they have been waiting for answers for two months now.
If the government is really serious about addressing youth homelessness, they will do more than just invest in bricks and mortar. They will engage meaningfully with stakeholders, answer questions, provide clarity, develop a specific youth-targeted housing strategy and do more to measure the outcomes and evaluate the success so that we can adjust where we need to and ensure that the money that is being invested is doing the work we need it to.
