Youth Homelessness

Homelessness seems to be a 'hot topic' in the media at the moment with today's release of the National Youth Commission's Inquiry into Youth Homelessness. In last week's edition of The Satellite Merrin Jagtman's cover story talked about an increasing number of people who are homeless in Brisbane's south-west suburbs. (Merrin is the same journalist who wrote an article about our club in celebration of Rotaract's 40th anniversary.)

The Sunday Mail reported that "more than 100 000 Australians live on the street, a third are under 25, a quarter live in Queensland." [April 9, 2008, p26). The article contained several quotes from Angela Barnes, executive manager of Brisbane Youth Services. She emphasised the importance of meeting basic physical and emotional needs before beginning employment training and job seeking.

The ABC reported a fortnight ago: "As mortgage stress rises across the country, more and more Australian families are reaching crunch point and having their homes repossessed. The aspirational suburbs of Sydney are among the hardest hit.

In the city's south-west, there are reports that working people are moving into homeless shelters because they have failed to meet their loan repayments. Home repossessions for 2008 are already at record highs and are expected to increase further through the year.

Phil Hancock from Brisbane Youth Service will be visiting our club on Thursday May 1 to discuss youth homelessness with us. BYS have been operating for more than 20 years and run a range of services including street outreach, a drop in centre and a health clinic as well as a parenting program for yong parents or parents-to-be who are homeless or at the risk of homelessness. As always, feel free to bring a friend with you. It should be a good night as we learn about youth homelessness and perhaps start thinking how we might be able to do our little bit to help.