Page 242 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 May 1989
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While I am on this topic, I want to give credit to those people in the various homes, the various types of establishments we have, who care for these young people who come through. They do a marvellous job. I want to give credit to the people in the ACT Housing Trust, not just those who handle the youth workers but also those who handle all the housing problems. They come under the most severe pressure that we can imagine. We come under some of that pressure but we see only a small part of it. So let us acknowledge the work that is being done there.
But the problem compounds. The real problem for a lot of these people comes when they leave the crisis accommodation to which they can first be directed. These are not short term problems. They are not problems that can be solved by sending a young person into one of the establishments for a six-week period or whatever the period is for which they are entitled to stay; the real problem comes subsequently. It is evidenced by the fact that to a very large degree the Administration does not know where those young people go to when they leave the crisis accommodation.
Sometimes they go back home, to whatever threatening situation may be there. Sometimes they go to garages or friends' places, but wherever they go it is for the short term. The housing review that we are now undertaking has to consider the long term future for those people. We have to provide for them; that is what we are here to do.
For the most part, the Government and the private sector do not provide for them. How can they provide in the established modes that we have, the established housing patterns, for someone who is young and without income? We need to extend the range of services that we have to offer.
Let us go up in the age level a little, beyond 16 and towards 18. They can go into government housing and private housing, but in practice they very rarely do so because of the severe constraints on eligibility and financial requirements. Again, lack of income is crucial.
How can young people who may be getting their act together, maybe continuing at school, and who are pretty much in control of themselves, if not the circumstances in which they find themselves, go into private accommodation? Bonds, furniture and the authority to sign leases are the sort of detail that is required.
So, no matter how good the people are, they are in trouble. If the people are not in total control of themselves, if they are not fully able to see the circumstances in which they find themselves and take action, it is a very difficult problem indeed. So we have a whole range of very specific needs to which we must respond.
I am pleased that there is a relatively short term on this, so that we may be able to respond to them fairly soon. We
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