Youth Homelessness. Not Just Houslessness..Can We End It?
Online App To Share Unused Driveways: Pay-As-You-Go
April 10, 2011Leaders-As-Hosts NOT Heroes: The New Democracy?
April 14, 2011Homelessness is not just houselessness – but it’s always about housing, says a coalition of groups addressing this huge problem. On any night in Australia 105,000 people are homeless and 25% are under 25.
Campaign To Raise Awareness
Virgin Unite, the non-profit arm of the Virgin Group, hopes to raise awareness through an online petition – really easy to use – and which will be presented to parliament to urge action on this issue.
Please pass this link on through your connections.
Revolutionising the Way Business And the Social Sector Work Together
Unite is bringing people together to tackle tough social and environmental problems with an entrepreneurial approach. They believe bringing business and the social sector together is the only way we can address the scale and urgency of the challenges facing the world today.
They’d like to see business as a force for good.
Unite is working on behalf of vulnerable young people around the world and with this campaign they are working in partnership with a variety of groups including:
Yfoundations – a NSW youth peak group
Oasis a youth refuge in Sydney
National Youth Coalition for Housing NYCH focuses on youth homelessness and housing issues, and represents the nine State/Territory Youth Housing and SAAP sectors.
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About Youth Homelessness
Youth Homelessness doesn’t just mean sleeping rough on the streets. There are three different types of homelessness that are considered the standard cultural definition of homelessness in Australia.
1. Primary homelessness includes all people without a ‘roof over their head’. This means people who are living on the streets, sleeping in parks, squatting in derelict buildings or using cars or trains as temporary shelter.
2. Secondary homelessness includes people who frequently move from one type of shelter to another. This includes people living in homeless services, hostels, people staying with other households who have no home of their own and people staying in boarding houses for 12 weeks or less.
3. Tertiary homelessness refers to people who live in boarding houses on a medium to long term basis (more than 13 weeks), who live in accommodation that does not have ‘self-contained facilities’ for example they do not have their bathroom or kitchen and who don’t have the security provided by a lease. They are homeless because their accommodation does not have the characteristics identified in the minimum community standard for housing.
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Young People’s Stories – The Face Of Homelessness
The campaign’s website, endyouthhomelessness.com.au is collecting stories from young people, posting them as they come in so the general public can read what it’s like to experience homelessness as a young person.
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Will you sign the End Youth Homelessness petition? I have.
1 Comment
I was homeless in my teens it wasn’t pleasant, I have been homeless again later in life and it wasn’t a problem because I was single at the time, kids had grown, I was an adult and hey.. it was easy.
I have taken in a lot of teens over the years and in fact have one with me at the moment, I also work with youth so know many homeless kids. You have to have been there or know some of these kids personally to really understand how hard it is. It is not just somewhere to sleep at night. I think we should provide businessmen and politicians opportunities to experience it. Put them in a different town, and they try and survive for a week from scratch. not being nasty, but if the decision makers know the grass roots level of what these kids deal with, they will be able to better help them with appropriate legislation and support programs.