Homeless body has ‘never seen demand like this’ from vulnerable schoolchildren

ALMOST 12,000 Victorian school-aged kids have sought help in a year as “more and more” children are sleeping in cars. One peak body says they’ve “never seen demand like this”.

“We’re seeing more school aged children every year,” says the Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith. Picture: iStock

A HUGE spike in homeless schoolchildren has gripped the state with “more and more” vulnerable kids sleeping in cars, a peak body has revealed.

Homeless services are under “incredible” strain as almost 12,000 Victorian preschool, primary and secondary kids have sought help in a single year.

Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) chief executive Jenny Smith said the body had “never seen demand like this”.

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An added 1377 schoolchildren accessed homeless services between the 2016 and 2017 financial years — an increase of 13 per cent — Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data shows.

And more than half of all 11,847 Victorian children who sought help in 2017 were primary school aged children — a total of 6,246.

Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith. Picture: Josie Hayden

“We’re seeing more school aged children every year,” Ms Smith said.

“We’re seeing more and more families sleeping in the backs of cars, vulnerable families and children in cheap hotels every night and an increase of kids in private rooming houses where they’re living with people that have problems with drugs and alcohol.”

Ms Smith said CHP was increasingly seeing families who simply don’t have enough income to pay for a rental; “we’re talking about people with no other disadvantage other than being able to get enough hours work to put a roof over their head”.

Among the children who accessed help in the past year was a 13-year-old girl who slept in a van for three months in the backstreets of Collingwood — her and her mum were evicted from their rental when her mum was in hospital.

Another girl, 12, slept in a car and on friends’ couches with her mum before moving interstate to escape family violence.

She has attended eight different schools in the past three years.

“If kids fall out of school or have a troubled schooling, it gives them problems for life,” Ms Smith said.

“We are going to pay a very very expensive price — a generation of people who have experienced trauma and stress and disadvantage that was preventable.”

The Council to Homeless Persons has called on the State Government to invest $17.6 million over four years to improve school outcomes for homeless kids.

It says the money would support 12,000 kids to stay in school, help with school costs, behaviour and anger management programs and expand the Department of Education and Training’s LOOKOUT program, which currently exists for kids in state care.

The funding would also be used to place specialist children’s homelessness workers across the state to target kids at risk of disengaging with school.

Minister for Housing Martin Foley. Picture: AAP Image/Mal Fairclough

Minister for Housing Martin Foley said young people experiencing homelessness were “particularly vulnerable and, like all Victorians, they deserve to have a roof over their head and access to education”.

“We know that breaking the cycle of homelessness is a huge challenge for our community — that’s why we have invested a record $799 million in additional homeless and housing support,” he said.

The government was investing $2.1 billion for the social housing sector to help build affordable accommodation.

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VICTORIAN KIDS NEEDING HOMELESS HELP

2017 / 2016

Preschool 862 / 757

Primary school 6246 / 5663

Secondary school 4739 / 4050

TOTAL 11,847 / 10,470

*Financial years data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare compiled by Council to Homeless Persons