Homeless Alice Springs kids say more emergency accommodation options are needed

A report involving more than 150 homeless Alice Springs youths reveals a dire shortfall in emergency accommodation options and the link between homelessness and crime.

“A lot of these kids need help, we gotta stop letting them struggle because they’re gonna get worse, and everyone is gonna start complaining to the police, knowing full well that we coulda (sic) done something earlier.”

The voice of 17-year-old Kaia, whose last name is withheld for privacy reasons, echoes through a television screen into a small room in Alice Springs.

Kaia is one of more than 150 homeless youth in Alice Springs who have lent their voices to the “They can’t go back home”: Young People and Homelessness in Mparntwe report.

Led by youth on the ground, the 37-page report was released by the office of the NT Children’s Commissioner and Shelter NT on Friday to push for more government action on homelessness in Central Australia.

Youth said “starting trouble” was a direct consequence of not having access to safe housing in Alice Springs. Picture Mark Brake

Young people identified violence, alcohol and other drugs and poverty as reasons behind sleeping rough, saying narratives associating young Indigenous homeless kids with crime failed to examine factors which led youth to the streets.

“For black fellas, racism is alive and well in this town,” 23-year-old Liam said.

“Kids have the potential to make it far, in life, in sports, take the next step in life but they just sort of give up because they don’t know their path. They have goals but don’t reach for it. “The government sort of forgets about us.”

Several young people said “starting trouble” was a direct consequence of not having access to housing.

“They don’t have anywhere to go at night, they’ll be running around causing trouble,” 13-year-old Emily said.

Youth said there needed to be more youth-specific accommodation options and awareness of the services available, with many saying they weren’t aware of any services available in Alice Springs to help them.

The Alice Springs Youth Accommodation and Support service, which provides crisis, short and medium term accommodation to people aged between 14 and 23, is the only youth specialist homelessness service in the town, but the waitlist for its program was closed at the time of publication due to the volume of applicants.

NT Shelter Central Australian regional co-ordinator Annie Taylor said only 11 per cent of young people were able to identify a youth specific specialist homelessness service, with 22 per cent unable to identify any service that might be able to support them.

NT Shelter Central Australian regional co-ordinator Annie Taylor said youth foyers exist in every other Australian jurisdiction besides the Territory. Picture: Laura Hooper.

“The majority identify the need for youth specific accommodation, what that looks like can really vary,” she said.

“In this report we looked at several (accommodation) models that reflected what we were told (about what support was needed), the youth foyer is one of those models.

“Foyers exist in every other Australian jurisdiction, but we don’t have any here in the Northern Territory despite the fact that we have the highest rate of youth homelessness in the country.”

NT Shelter chief executive officer Peter McMillan said he wanted to see a commitment from the Northern Territory Government to build a youth foyer in Alice Springs.

“The young people consulted as part of this project want to see more youth-specific accommodation in Alice Springs.

NT Shelters chief executive officer Peter McMillan wants the government to commit to building a youth foyer facility in Alice Springs.

“They’re not the first to say it, a youth foyer facility is identified in the NT Government’s

homelessness strategy, it was also a 2019 Federal Labor election promise and we’ve got a

housing and homelessness sector who are telling us it’s part of the solution to homelessness in Central Australia.

“Despite this we’re yet to see a commitment to progress it.”

A Territory Families, Housing and Communities spokesman said TFHC had been working with non-government agencies to establish a youth foyer in Alice Springs in 2022, but a finalised agreement was unable to be reached.

“TFHC continues to work towards a Youth Foyer model in Alice Springs including looking at the availability of providers, sustainable funding sources and a suitable location,” he said.