A residential facility should be established on Canberra's northside to support young people at risk of homelessness, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.
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The government should model the facility on a service already operating in the capital's south to expand access to support services, the Legislative Assembly's standing committee on health and community wellbeing said.
"The committee considers the Waramanga facility an excellent and important development in supporting young people at risk of homelessness," the committee's report on 2021-22 annual and financial reports said.
"For this reason, the Committee would like to see such a facility replicated so that more young people can access these services."
The 2021 ACT budget included $4.1 million to run a therapeutic respite accommodation facility for people at risk of homelessness aged eight to 15.
Families and Community Services Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said, when the funding was announced, the safe and connected youth program had been a successful partnership between government and non-government organisations, led by the Youth Coalition of the ACT and the Canberra Rotary Club.
The program was expanded in June 2022, with Marymead and the Conflict Resolution Service selected to deliver the services.
Ms Stephen-Smith in November told the health and community wellbeing standing committee Rotary members had lobbied her for a northside residential facility.
"The house itself, in terms of the refurbishment, was co-designed with young people who have an experience of homelessness and residential care. They provided some really valuable insight into the feel of the place, the actual design," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The committee also heard 80 per cent of young people engaged with the program return home.
"I think it is important to recognise, in terms of the model, that the house is not a place where young people would stay for an extended period in one go," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"It is about working with the family and maybe providing two nights a week in a planned way, or two or three nights a week for a few weeks, not staying solidly for four weeks at a time."
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The ACT's rate of long-term homelessness - already the worst in the nation - has continued to rise despite a bigger spend on support services.
The Productivity Commission's report on government services, released in January, showed 42.9 per cent of people accessing homelessness support in the ACT were homeless for at least seven months in two years.
Nationally, just 26.6 per cent of clients reported persistent homelessness in the same period.
The ACT has had the highest rate of persistent homelessness since at least 2018-19.
The housing needs of more than a quarter of people in the ACT relying on homelessness support are also not being met.
Homelessness Minister Rebecca Vassarotti acknowledged at the time the high rate of long-term homelessness was concerning.
"We continue to pursue a future where homelessness is rare, brief and non re-occurring," Ms Vassarotti said.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
