David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Youth homelessness is a growing problem in Australia. The wider context is that homelessness across all age groups has been continuing to rise ahead of overall population growth. Here in the ACT the average monthly number of people being assisted by service providers is up 21 per cent over the last five years. The ACT has, shamefully, the second-largest increase in Australia over this period. Only Queensland has seen a more alarming increase. Last year, the average number of people being helped by homelessness services each month in the ACT was 1,972, up from 1,629 five years ago. A quarter of these are young people. The latest figures show that 405 young people well being helped by homelessness service agencies in Canberra in June 2023, up from 375 five years earlier.

A couple of months ago I visited PCYC, out near Canberra airport. They are doing amazing work with young people, helping them to get back into school and providing them with the support they need. At the end of spending time with the various groups in their programs, we sat around. One of the facilitators said, 'We've got a senator here. What would you like to ask him to do?' One of the kids put his hand up and said, 'I'd like to ask him for youth homelessness services in the ACT.' It's a very sobering thing to be asked that by a teenager, and it's a question that needs to be met with action from government, from leaders.

There are far too many children falling through the cracks at the moment. While some are able to access out-of-home care systems, others aren't, because at the same time that we are facing an acute shortage of social and affordable housing we are facing an acute shortage of foster carers. The stark reality for these children is, if they aren't with a foster carer by age 12, they likely never will be. Instead, they are forced to navigate the homelessness system without a guardian, without so much as a Medicare card. The system in its current form sends a message to children that they are worthless. The crisis of child and youth homelessness in Australia is getting worse. The government's National Housing and Homelessness Plan needs to give specific attention to homeless young people. It must address this issue.

Along with crossbench colleagues in the Senate, I will continue to press the government to raise Australia's game on housing and homelessness. This must include time-specific homelessness reduction targets agreed between the Commonwealth and states and territories. Ending child and youth homelessness needs to be part of an ambition to tackle the wider problem of homelessness head-on. This is a problem that has continued to escalate, and this is a shameful story that we, as one of the richest countries in the world, cannot allow to continue. We can afford to invest in our communities. We can ensure that young people in Canberra have somewhere to go that is safe to spend the night and that we don't have young people sleeping rough in Glebe Park or other parts of Civic. I am calling on the federal government to step up in this area. We've got the National Housing and Homelessness Plan coming up. It has to be addressed in there. It has to be addressed. We need a specific mention of it and a plan to ensure that this is addressed in Australia.