Homeless Young People: Points of Intervention

As Australia has come to terms with the existence of a large population of homeless young people and systems have evolved to respond to their needs, attention has increasingly turned to the specific issues affecting very young people who are not living at home. Questions have been raised regarding the appropriateness of our service models for this group, and debates have occurred as to who is responsible for their maintenance and support. Governments and community-based service providers have responded to these challenges by developing protocols and practice guidelines for child protection agencies and homelessness services, and reviewing current service models. Yet despite these efforts, the problems confronting very young homeless people clearly remain unresolved. While life is difficult for all homeless young people, those under 16 years of age have the additional problem of having to negotiate a complex and fragmented service system. Many are affected by the child protection, education, income support and homelessness service systems, which are individually strained, and collectively poorly coordinated. And they are required to confront these systems at a time in thei