By Margaret Maccoll
A Housing and Homelessness Roadshow set for this week, National Homelessness Week has been postponed due to Covid restrictions that are making conditions even more difficult.
The Noosa Council-initiated roadshow aimed to put Noosa residents impacted by the housing crisis in touch with agencies that could help them and to raise community awareness about homelessness.
Youturn Youth Support is one of the few organisations to remain open during Covid restrictions to help the rising number of people in Noosa Shire struggling to deal with lost employment, rising rents and a shortage of affordable housing.
Youturn corporate strategy and engagement general manager Dr Tanya Bell said homelessness was reaching fever pitch with many people who’d never before been homeless suddenly left with nowhere to go.
In one instance, a couple whose rent increased $150 could not afford the increase, was evicted and found themselves at risk of homelessness. The couple both worked and, despite submitting 15 rental applications, were struggling to secure a lease and found themselves at risk of homelessness, she said.
Dr Bell said the couple was among a growing number of locals turning to organisations such as Youturn for help to navigate the housing crisis or access emergency relief.
“It’s definitely ramped up quite a bit,“ she said. “We feel more people are coming through for emergency relief. People are definitely taking the strain.“
Dr Bell said prior to Covid the service was seeing 25-30 people a week. Now they’re seeing that number each day.
“We’re seeing people we’ve never seen before,“ she said.
“We’re just finding people who might previously have needed short-term support are needing long-term support. We see a lot of the casual workforce. A lot of employment options available in Noosa are in retail, hospitality. We’re seeing a lot of young people not getting the shifts they were promised. They’ve found themselves in a situation they wouldn’t dream of.
“They’re all Australians. In 2020 we had quite a few backpackers. They’ve repatriated, gone home or gone elsewhere. It’s school leavers and people coming here for work from the Gold Coast or Townsville. I have kids the same age. It hits home.“
Dr Bell said under normal circumstances there were services available to provide assistance. Run mostly by volunteers, many in vulnerable categories, they shut down during Covid restrictions, which makes sense, she said.
Youturn has a vision to tackle youth homelessness by providing more access to stable housing for young people and raise funds to invest and build tiny homes.They have partnered with Sunshine Coast business Aussie Tiny Houses and with Noosa Council support plan to build and locate two tiny homes on Council allocated land in the Noosa Shire.
This week Aussie Tiny Houses donated $10,000 toward the project.
“One of our visions, when we opened our doors, was to be part of the solution to the current housing crisis we are living in at the moment. Homelessness is a complex issue with many factors contributing to Australia’s increasing rates of young people who find themselves couch-surfing, living rough, or in supported accommodation. For most young people, homelessness is not a choice,” Aussie Tiny Houses managing director Fabio Paulucci said.
The Tiny Homes initiative will provide short-term, transitional housing to young people in need of homelessness support. After receiving help to resolve crisis in their lives, a young person may receive ongoing social support and tenancy in a Tiny Home, before taking the next step to independent living, Dr Bell said.
“Our original aim was to raise $100 000 for our first Tiny Home, but with the support and generosity of our community we have almost raised enough for two tiny homes which will be located in the Noosa Shire,“ she said.
In addition, Youturn and other local agencies will be working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics during the upcoming Census Week to ensure residents sleeping rough in Noosa are counted.
“Every stat tells a story and every person deserves a roof over their head. We need to make sure everyone is counted so the data is accurate and can help our efforts to secure more housing support from state and federal governments,” Dr Bell said.
“People sleeping rough too often fall through the cracks. Last census recorded just three Noosa residents with nowhere to call home. But we know the figures were much higher.”
