“Our national shame”: the extent of child homelessness in Australia

Almost 50,000 Australian children are either homeless or at risk of being out on the street. Victoria is the worst affected state, with more than 110,000 people struggling to keep a roof over their head, shocking new data has revealed.

Almost 50,000 children across Australia are either homeless or at risk of homelessness, new data has revealed.

Shocking new data has revealed the heartbreaking number of Australian children who are either homeless or at risk of being out on the street, in what experts have called “our national shame”.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) figures show more than 80,000 of the people on housing agencies’ books nationwide in 2017-18 were under 18.

Of those, more than 47,600 were aged just nine or under, a result of the tens of thousands of mothers who had reported they were fleeing family violence.

The figures represent people who were either homeless or at risk of homelessness and had sought help from support services.

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A Leader News analysis of the figures found the biggest age group for males was kids aged 0-9 years — more than a fifth of male housing service clients across Australia.

The biggest age group for women was 25-34-year-olds.

Another devastating figure was the 43,180 young people who had approached these services on their own.

Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said the extent of homelessness in Australia was “our national shame”, and that people who experienced it as children were often affected well into adulthood.

“We’re destroying our future by not helping young people,” Ms Smith said.

“We will pay for this in spades.”

Ms Smith said governments needed to work together on a national plan to improve housing affordability with measures such as tackling negative gearing and capital gains tax, introducing inclusionary zoning and investing more in social housing.

The AIHW suburb-by-suburb study of Australians of all ages seeking help from homelessness support services paints a harrowing picture, showing the extent of the housing affordability crisis runs much deeper than people sleeping on the streets.

More than 116,000 Victorians were either homeless or struggling to keep a roof over their head in 2017-18.

While the Victorian figures were the highest — compared with 71,628 in NSW — Ms Smith said local support services had a “clearer front door system” and could provide more accurate data.

Greater Geelong was the hardest hit council area in the state with 5090 people accessing homelessness services, followed by Brimbank (5013), Melton (3629), Wyndham (3602) and Casey (3221).

At a suburban level, St Kilda fared the worst with 1546 people, followed by Dandenong (1535), Melbourne (1463), Frankston (1402) and St Albans North (1355).

Council to Homeless Persons volunteer Allan Martin with chief executive Jenny Smith. Picture: Janine Eastgate

AIHW spokesman Matthew James noted close to six in 10 clients across Australia were not homeless when seeking assistance but were at risk.

“This highlights the important role specialist homelessness agencies play, not only in helping people who are homeless but also in providing a range of services to help prevent people becoming homeless in the first place,” Mr James said.

Ms Smith said the widespread extent of the issue showed no suburb was immune and that people sleeping rough represented only seven per cent of people experiencing homelessness.

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The majority were in crisis accommodation, rooming houses or couch-surfing.

“It’s quite horrendous to think nearly 289,000 people are accessing these services — and it doesn’t reflect the so many more people who are in crisis,” Ms Smith said.

“Support services are having to turn away more than 230 people a day across Australia, which is just heartbreaking.

“Right now we’re the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff trying to triage who needs the most help, but we’d much rather be at the top of the cliff preventing people from falling.”

She said prevention was a much more cost-effective and preferable way of dealing with the situation than watching people end up in hospitals, psychiatric wards and jails.