Yfoundations strongly supports the intent of the ‘National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024’ to recognise access to adequate housing as a fundamental human right and to legislate a requirement that the Australian Government develops, implements and maintains a National Housing and Homelessness Plan.

In recognition that homelessness, particularly child and youth homeless, represents a violation of a wider set of fundamental rights than the right to adequate housing alone, and that the solution to child and youth homelessness requires a focus on a broader range of systemic issues, we recommend a broader scope of focus for the proposed Act than is included in the Bill as currently drafted.

Yfoundations made comprehensive submissions to inform the Government’s current development of its National Plan. In highlighting the evidence of the alarming and ongoing prevalence of child and youth homelessness in Australia and the failure of successive governments at the National and State levels to end this insidious problem, two core tenets of our submission to the Government were that:

• ending child and youth homelessness looks different to ending adult homelessness or solving the housing crisis; and
• whilst a Housing First model, where allocating housing is the first response combined with wraparound supports, is a very effective adult homelessness response, it is not always the right response for young people.

To prevent the adultification of children and young people at risk of and experiencing homelessness, to recognise that this cohort’s pathways into and out of homelessness are different to those of adults, and to contribute to a future without child and youth homelessness in Australia, Yfoundations calls for a standalone National Child and Youth Homelessness and Housing Plan.