Resi-kids hungry despite $1.4 million budget to cover agency expenses

Money-hungry agencies are charging an average of $500,000 per year as they bid to look after troubled kids on the Gold Coast. And yet the cupboards are still bare.

Gold Coast teenager “Steve” — he wants kids to have a voice about the options under Child Safety care. Picture Glenn Hampson

DESPITE taxpayers coughing up $500,000 a year for a child in residential care, teenagers say they are left hungry — with one telling the Bulletin he and his little brother have to make do with a weekly budget for food of just $150.

A special investigation has revealed it is costing up to $1.4 million a year, or $27,000 a week, for some children in resi-care as profit-hungry agencies rort the system under the watch of Child Safety.

Photographs obtained by the Bulletin show bare kitchen shelves and fridges stocked sparingly with salads and fruit.

The kitchen pantry of a Gold Coast home where two teenage brothers live in residential care under Child Safety.

Parents of children in Coast resi-care say they have received texts from their sons, who are hungry due to the lack of solid meals.

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“They messaged me four weeks ago to say the cupboards and the fridge, there was no food. They were told if you don’t like what’s there, go out and get a job,” a parent said.

Steven, 16, lives with his younger teenage brother and said children in resi-care were frustrated because “we have no voice”.

“They (the agencies) get a certain amount of funding. But it doesn’t all go to us kids,” Steve said.

The fridge at a home where Gold Coast teenage boys are in residential care under the watch of Child Safety.

“They don’t give us much food. It’s not enough for normal teenage boys. They spend about $150 a week, and that’s for two kids.

“We could eat way more. They have so much money. The food is not just for us. They (the agency carers) eat it as well. It’s lettuce and tomato. I wouldn’t even call it a salad.

“I often refuse to eat it. Then they just give us a sandwich.”

A copy of a text provided by the school student showed his carer suggested Steve get a job if he wanted more food.

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A text message sent to a Gold Coast teenager in residential care after a dispute about the lack of food in the fridge of the care home.

“This is why you need to go and get a job,” the carer said in the text.

“You’re pretty much an adult, you need to be making your own money so you can buy yourself food when what’s in your house isn’t good enough for you.”

Since the Bulletin reported about the brothers, who say they will soon be without a home, there has been strong community support for their plight.

Several people through the Bulletin’s Facebook page have posted messages offering to support the youths.

Tony Hodder of the support agency Wingman has been guiding the brothers on their next move as their relatives await the findings of a complaint to Child Safety.