This week’s Youth Homelessness Matters Day calls for a standalone Child and Youth Homelessness and Housing Strategy to end child and youth homelessness in Australia.
Youth Homelessness Matters Day (YHMD) was held on Wednesday 19 April 2023. This national campaign has been running for over 30 years to raise awareness and public discussion about child and youth homelessness. The most recent Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) data indicates that almost 40,000 children and young people aged 15 to 24 years presented alone to an SHS in 2021–22, representing the third largest client group.
Alongside Victorian YHMD2023 events like the Ballarat Youth Services Network catch-up, morning tea with Reconnect at HealthAbility in Eltham, and a Uniting Vic/Tas lunch at Horsham, this year homelessness peak body Yfoundations called for development of a standalone National Child and Youth Homelessness and Housing Strategy. “For too long, the specific and complex needs of children and young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness have been assumed to be the same as those of adults and have not been explicitly addressed in government plans to address homelessness,” says Trish Connolly, CEO, Yfoundations.
Add your signature to the petition at Charge.org in support of developing a new strategy, designed specifically for young people experiencing homelessness.
