Youth homelessness in Wyndham is at crisis point, the city’s main housing support agency says.
UnitingCare Werribee Support and Housing youth and family mediator Cath Guerrieri said couch-surfing – where young people stay temporarily with extended family or friends – was increasingly common.
“Couch-surfing is not a long-term solution,” Ms Guerrieri said. “It puts pressure on relationships and on [young people’s] education as well.
“If they’re lucky, young people might get a place at a refuge in the inner city and travel out to Wyndham every day just to go to school.”
She said there was nothing for young people who were homeless in Wyndham.
“We would like to see the community step up and get more involved and, hopefully, the state government might listen.”
Last Thursday, the city’s welfare agencies joined forces for Youth Homelessness Matters Day. Ms Guerrieri said the campaign was aimed at highlighting the need for Wyndham’s own emergency accommodation centre.
In 2011, the Salvation Army with Wyndham council, Yarra Community Housing, Uniting Care Werribee Support and Housing, Western Region Health Centre and Werribee Mercy Hospital drafted an H3 Wyndham Crisis Intervention Facility proposal.
The H3 Alliance has asked for $5 million from the state government to build the centre to help homeless families and single adults for up to six weeks and two weeks, respectively. However, the proposal has yet to get government support.
“These days, it seems people accept youth homelessness as a fact of life,” Ms Guerrieri said. “What changed in our society that turned this from a scandal into something that is acceptable?”
