Youth homelessness on the rise in Tasmania, as Mission Australia study finds alarming number of cohort impacted
By Sophie JaggersLydia has been experiencing housing insecurity since she was kicked out of home in August last year.
After moving through several homeless shelters in her home state of Western Australia, she came to Tasmania for a fresh start. She is only 17.
"I was couch surfing for about three months, and then went to my first homeless shelter back in WA," she said.
"[I] got kicked out of that one, went to a different one, and then they kicked me out, couch surfed for a good month-and-a-half, then came to Tassie."
She is one of seven girls living at Mara House in Hobart, a homeless shelter for young women aged 13 to 20 run by youth advocacy group Colony 47.
Jasmine* said many underestimated how large the demand for services was in Tasmania.
"People think there's a lot of women's shelters and that means we're pretty covered. But we're not, there's not enough," she said.
Lydia said there needed to be "more houses, more kind people that are actually genuinely willing to help".
"People need to open up their eyes."
Tully Lloyd, a youth housing coordinator at Colony 47, said the number of young people experiencing homelessness was "disproportionately high" in Hobart and across the state — and it is rising.
"There's not a relationship breakdown, or a family breakdown, it's that mum and dad or whoever … is also experiencing homelessness, so they need that support for their children as well," she said.
Ms Lloyd said young Tasmanian people "have to fight really, really hard and be so motivated to maintain even minimal support that is offered to them right now".
"It's exhausting."
While Colony47 provides support across multiple programs and two youth shelters in Hobart, demand for services often outpaces its capacity, with other services also unable to help.
According to Homes Tasmania, there were at least 1,712 instances of children and young people aged 8 to 17 presenting unaccompanied to specialist homelessness services in Tasmania in 2023.
A new study from Mission Australia backs the experiences of Colony 47 and recent findings from Tasmania's Commissioner for Children and Young People.
Mission Australia's Tasmanian director Jurek Stopczynski said its report The Unfair Divide "highlighted the profound impact that homelessness can have on a young person's wellbeing and the need for early intervention and prevention programs to stop young people from becoming homeless in the first place".
"In Tasmania, young people aged 12 to 24 make up a quarter of all people experiencing homelessness," Mr Stopczynski said.
"We need governments at all levels to do more to prevent young Tasmanians from becoming homeless, whether it's investing in social and affordable housing, boosting rental subsidies, implementing prevention measures and expanding specialist housing options.
"We know the impacts of homelessness can be devastating — not having a stable and secure home can deny young people the ability to plan for their futures and pursue education and employment opportunities."
Other findings from the Mission Australia report include:
- More than 10 per cent of Tasmanian young people aged 15 to 19, who responded to Mission Australia's Youth Survey 2023, experienced homelessness in the previous 12 months
- More than two in five (43 per cent) Tasmanian young people who had been homeless were lonely all or most of the time compared with 21 per cent of their stably housed peers
- They were also more likely to find it difficult to socialise and fit in (54 per cent compared with 30 per cent) and were seven times more likely to have strained or poor family relationships (42 per cent compared with 6 per cent)
- Additionally, more than half (52 per cent) of Tasmanian young people who were recently homeless said they had a mental health condition, compared with 17 per cent of young people with stable homes
'People can transcend their circumstances'
Ms Lloyd has witnessed the potential for quality support to change a young person's life and recalls one ex-resident who shared her story.
"She told me about the support she got from the staff who told her 'you can do it, you can do it', who supported her to explore career options, study and goals.
"And she followed that path, she got her dream job, and she called that night to tell us she had just signed on her first home, and she was a first home buyer.
"It does happen, things get better, people can transcend their circumstances with support, we know that they just need it. They just need support and safe people."
* Name has been changed