Brittany Napier and Ellen Parsons report
In Australia, 47 per cent of homeless youths are surfing couches rather than living out on the streets.
Millennials aged between fifteen to twenty-four are sleeping at other people’s homes to escape various issues, such as family breakdown, or mental health.
According to Brisbane Youth Services, young people who are sleeping on couches are often dismissed by homelessness services as they do not present as people in immediate danger.
Neil Davis, Operations Director at the Burdekin Association, said homelessness in the Northern Beaches area where he is located often goes unnoticed.
“I think couch surfing is the unseen side of homelessness…you come to an affluent area like the Northern Beaches and you think there’s no problems because it’s not visible” he said.
Davis said that the inability for young people to find accommodation that they can afford leads them to sleeping on couches.
“If you’re studying at university, or you’re still in school, how can you afford to live? Especially in the Northern Beaches where you do have to move to access university.”
For 20-year-old Luke Kenton, regular couch surfing was his reality when he began attending university in Canberra.
In his first year at the Australian National University, Luke found himself moving around to four different homes with friends and various family members.
Luckily, Luke was able to remove himself from the situation by moving 30 minutes out of Canberra’s central business district.
Mr Davis said, at the Burdekin Association, there are four housing complexes available to young people who are in need of permanency and stability of living.
With the help of volunteer carers, individuals who attend these homes are released in two years and find their own places to reside.
“I think when I was doing statistics a while back, I think 2015…about eighty-four percent of our young people leave and move into independent accommodation when they leave us.”
Another focus of the organisation is to assist young people with their family or mental health complications in order to prevent them from turning to couch surfing at all.
“We are looking at sort of therapeutic independence of living skill…more family support and community work…providing support for the parents as well to manage through the big drug culture in this area [Northern Beaches].”
“Look, I think we’d like to be a service that’s not operating at the end of the day. Our main aim is to prevent all homelessness” Mr Davis said.
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