With this week being Homelessness Week across Australia, chief executive Melinda Lawley said the EFY Foyer had provided a great program for vulnerable young people hoping to excel in education.
But she said about 68 per cent of young people were still being referred to the Bridge due to family violence.
“I was interested to see with the opening of the foyer (2016), if we would see a trend down (in youth homelessness); that didn’t happen," she said.
“Our figures are still high, they fluctuate from year to year but there’s no trend down; it’s staying the same.
“Our figures can also fluctuate based on how long the young person needs because when they come to us, we have to do more work with them.”
Mrs Lawley said the barriers between youth referred to the Bridge were different to the barriers faced by youth trying to secure a foyer place.
“The EFY Foyer is great for the group of people that go there but that’s not the group of people we’re seeing come through the Bridge.
“We can probably count on one hand people how many we can get into the foyer."It’s not because the foyer won’t let us but because the young people don’t meet their criteria.
“The young people who are applying for the foyer are not the same coming through Bridge.
“Some of their barriers are education-based such as not keeping up with education if they stay where they are.”
The Bridge does work with young people to secure a place inside the EFY Foyer as a long-term option on a case-by-case basis.
“We hope a lot of the young people here can get to the foyer but it’s not for all of them.”
Mrs Lawley said there was a gap between young people in the EFY Foyer and those referred to the Bridge by entry point services including Beyond Housing, VincentCare and Rumbalara.
She said part of the gap came from housing, as the Bridge was limited to where it could house young people.
“One choice would be the EFY Foyer but it’s a very low number because they’re not ready.
“We can do private rental and we have had success there.
"Last year we had 16 young people who were able to secure private rental through our financial assistance.
“Our rough figure is about 290 young people who were or at risk of being homeless.
“There are young people we can intervene with early and don’t need financial assistance, they just need housing support to understand the system.”
Not all youth homelessness can be attributed to the individual but can also come from external factors.
Mrs Lawley said the mental health of the young person’s parent could be a cause for youth homelessness.
“There might be a young person who is living at home with their parent that has serious mental health issues and it can eventually leave the young person homeless.
“With older people they can become homeless because they can’t pay the mortgage or they lose their job, where with young people there’s a lot of lead up.
“There are signs out there we can work on to prevent youth homelessness,” Mrs Lawley said.
To recognise Homelessness Week today there is a morning tea at Friars Cafe starting at 10.30am and tomorrow night a screening of Life After the Oasis at Village Cinemas at 6.30pm.
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