Raising Awareness for Homelessness Week 2024

This is a Guest Blog written by Ben Vasiliou, CEO of Youth Projects who Dr. Bronner's is supporting throughout August and September. 

As I write this article, Australia is acknowledging Homelessness Week for 2024. I am still flabbergasted that in this rich and amazing country, we must acknowledge the thousands upon thousands of people who are without a safe, stable roof over their heads. I could talk about the housing crisis – there simply is not enough, nor is there enough planned for development. I could talk about tens of thousands of people languishing on the social housing list. I could talk about every level of government's failure to provide basic public housing. But we already know there is not enough housing. What I want to talk about is the real driver of homelessness; poverty. Poverty is rising, people are falling behind, and it is critically highlighted with our current economic and cost of living crisis and a post pandemic reality that there simply is not enough to go around. Enough housing, enough mental health care, enough family violence support, there simply is just too little of a safety net for anyone falling on hard times or trying to beat the vicious cycle of poverty to survive, let alone thrive. Our income support safety net is too low, no one is courageous enough to propose the idea of a universal basic income and the wealth divide is only growing stronger. The ‘have nots’ have less and the ‘haves’ get more. We saw this during the pandemic with billionaires and massive companies paying less tax while we demonise the underclass for not getting off their backsides and getting a job. I am not sure how that can be done when someone has no home, no shower, no clothes, often grappling with mental health challenges caused by homelessness and poverty. Yet here we are, Australia, the lucky country. NOT. It is a real shame, and this is why our work is so important.

At Youth Projects, and particularly via our unique and innovative health and homelessness centre, The Living Room, we go out of our way to see the whole person. We meet them with empathy and kindness, something that is often lost at other services, and provide a judgement free, wraparound, holistic and connected model of care. Folks can come from the streets, get a hot meal, take a shower, see a doctor or a nurse, and be supported to survive. We work hard and long hours, providing around the clock care to try and transition folks from the street to a home. We advocate long and hard - whether it be to housing agencies, medical care, legal support, income support – whatever it takes we call, and call and call until we get what our clients need.

For the 2023 – 2024 financial year The Living Room (TLR) saw 19,608 service users attend the service, 56% more attendances than the 2022 – 2023 financial year. The average number of attendances per month is 1,634. This continues a seriously concerning trend in rising attendance over the last 10 years.

What was most disturbing is that during this period, The Living Room Team significantly increased their efforts in facilitating housing solutions, making 1,200 referrals to housing. The sad reality is though that our clients only managed to achieve 151 housing outcomes. Compared to the previous year, where 453 referrals resulted in 85 housing outcomes, these figures indicate notable progress in advocating and addressing the housing needs of our clients, but highlight the simple and sad reality, there really is not enough housing – whether it be crisis accommodation, transitional or long term.

Yet, we march on. We still provided supports to 487 family violence presentations through our safe women’s wellness lounge, we had 2,500 rough sleepers take a hot shower, handed out 8,148 meals, and provided material assistance by the way of clothes and personal hygiene products over 7,594 times which is quadruple what we had to do last year.

Our amazing doctors (GP’s) saw 2,326 patients, 786 more appointments than last reporting period, with skin disorders respiratory, cardiovascular the top three health concerns followed closely by treatment for sexual and physical assaults, cancer care and dental problems rounding out the top six care plans provided. Supported by a wonderful nursing team we also provide pap smears, pregnancy testing and support, prescription management, pathology referrals (all of which we fund because no one else does if a person doesn’t have ID or a Medicare card, which is common).

And when the service closes at night (which it would not have to if we got the funding we need), a team of skilled and expert Night Nurses hit the streets until all hours of the night providing street-based health care. From tending to wounds, to crisis interventions, or a simply chat, meal and a blanket. Whatever you need in your dark times, we will be there.

Our Night Nurses are brave and courageous, going down alley ways and seeking out people instead of waiting for them to present to a service. We had over 3,743 night time interventions this year, compared to 3,243 the previous year. Many are women, young people, queer or gender diverse and struggle to get the service that meets them where they are at. Hence why this outreach program is so important. From wound or skin infections, to infestations, identifying diabetes, dental health issues, podiatry issues and blood borne viruses. We find things early and get people the treatment they need by referring them back to The Living Room team the next day or often supporting them, side by side, at the emergency department, advocating to the staff there as to why this person as no ID or Medicare, or explaining their past traumas as a way to understand why they may present in a heightened or anxious fashion in a clinical environment.  

With the support of a few donors, we also continue to keep the clinic open on Saturdays. We wish we could open longer, and with more staff, with a particular need to start opening on a Sunday, but we need to raise more funds!

Saturdays are often family days for most Aussies. But for homeless and vulnerable folk, we are their family on the weekends.

For the 2023-2024 reporting period, the Saturday Nursing Clinic recorded a total of 844 client contacts, an increase from the previous year's 733 contacts. There were 10,324 episodes of direct care provided, showcasing a significant expansion compared to the previous year.

At Youth Projects, we are often described as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, whilst also positioning our early intervention and prevention supports as the fence at the top of the cliff. Whilst responding to crisis and urgency for vulnerable folks on the streets, we also provide engaging and unique supports early, in Melbourne’s most challenging suburbs.

We have youth mental health, employment, training and social enterprise supports dotted around Melbourne. We have youth hubs, outreach services and even our own social enterprise, The Little Social, that provides work experience and social connection for young people to go on and lead healthy, safe, and meaningful lives.

Each year we reach over 3,000 young people aged 12-25 in Melbourne’s North, West and Inner suburbs providing holistic tailored care. We are trying to engage early and stop the transition to a life of poverty on the streets. The problem is our clients are getting younger, and more vulnerable.

In terms of mental health diagnoses, 30% of participants have been received a formal mental health diagnosis with the most prevalent being neurodiversity i.e. ADHD and autism (31%), followed by bipolar disorder (10%) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (10%). A majority (64%) of those have more than one mental health diagnosis. Interestingly, those with mood disorder diagnoses (i.e. depression and bipolar disorder) are reporting cannabis and alcohol use with some identifying cocaine as a secondary substance, whereas those with anxiety-based disorders (post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder).  

There are a couple of takeouts from the age demographic shift this year.  The 12 and 13-year-olds we were seeing straight after the pandemic have decreased, whereas the 14–16-year-old group has increased.  This indicates that those young people that were struggling with mental health issues post lockdowns have now grown older but the mental health impacts of the pandemic seem to linger with those that transitioned from primary to high school in 2020-21. 

Family violence has significantly increased over the last three years, whilst this could be attributed to more accurate data collection in this area, young people have been more willing and open to discussing their familial concerns. A large majority of young people experiencing family violence are under 18 years old (65%). Family violence presentations at the Living Room almost doubled last year and almost half the women seeking support from homelessness services cite family violence as the primary reason for seeking help.

We deliver short and long-term case management supports helping young people with their mental health, schooling, housing, family relationships and a range of life skills.

We then focus on economic participation and support young people to get back to study or into work to ensure they can support themselves long term.

The high rate of long-term unemployment at 38% underlines the importance of our role in breaking down barriers to employment and facilitating sustainable job placement. We work with young people to match them with trusted local employers. We placed 901 young people into employment this past year and supported a further 216 back into study at school or TAFE.

To support the young people who are furthest from the labour market, we developed an innovative hospitality social enterprise called The Little Social. We run three cafés and a catering business, creating anchored tenancies with prime locations with major Melbourne institutions such as The Alfred Hospital and The Victorian Pride Centre. We provide wrap around employment supports for young people who need help finding their feet, improving social connection and getting work ready. In the last year, we supported 77 young people with 83% of the young people who participated in the program transitioned into sustainable employment or education post-program. Almost half of our young people identify as First Nations, 67% of participants reported living with a disability, and unfortunately 71% had unstable housing. What was amazing was the self-reported improvements in wellbeing metrics. 83% reported improved confidence. 83% reported improved capacity to access labour market.

At Youth Projects, we are passionate about breaking the cycle of disadvantage. We want to create life-changing opportunities for the people we support. Whether that be through homelessness, health, jobs and skills, we do it because we know it counts, and we know it matters to those that need it most.

We strongly advocate for systemic changes in housing, mental health, education, health care and whilst those policy changes at a government level are slow, we will continue to meet people where they are at, day and night, 365 days a year.