The Property Industry Foundation has joined the Home Time Campaign, seeking urgent policy action and funding for young people experiencing homelessness.
The Property Industry Foundation has put their support behind the Home Time Campaign, which aims to address the policy and funding settings that lock around 40,000 children and young people experiencing homelessness out of our housing system. The Home Time Campaign has brought together over 120 organisations nationally to seek action – calling for dedicated tenancies for young people, linked support services and other critical actions to create pathways out of homelessness.
The Foundation has joined groups from every state and territory to write to federal, state and territory ministers, calling for urgent action to unlock Australia’s housing system for children and young people aged 16-24 with nowhere to live. “Aside from building bedrooms, we continue to support the homelessness industry in other ways, including the Home Time Campaign,” says the Foundation’s CEO Kate Mills. “The key changes these campaigns seek is for governments to understand that young people make up a very specific cohort in housing.”
A critical lack of dedicated tenancies linked to longer-term support for young people aged 16-24 prevents young people from accessing the housing and support they need. “It’s impossible for a young person on a lower salary to compete in the rental market against 40-year-olds on a bigger salary, but that’s how the rental market works,” says Mills. “It’s because of this that the age group that has the most homelessness per capita is those aged 19-24; this is also the group that has seen the biggest growth in homelessness between the 2006 and 2021 censuses.”
While acknowledging the Federal Budget and its investment in homelessness services and domestic and family violence, the Home Time Campaign highlights critical work to be done to provide pathways back into safe homes for at risk and vulnerable young Australians. Find out more about the campaign here
