Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . Without a home address, you can't open a bank account. Without a bank account, you can't get a job or even apply for government income support. Without any of those, you can't apply for, let alone rent, a property. While finding secure and affordable housing feels increasingly difficult for many Australians, getting out of homelessness is even harder. Housing organisations are sounding the alarm over the increasing number of First Nations families with children turning to homelessness services. "There's more people just deeply affected by the housing crisis. So rents just keep rising and rising and vacancy rates are really low. So it's really hard for people to find a home they can afford in the rental market. And homelessness services are overwhelmed by all the increasing number of people who need help." That was Kate Colvin, the CEO of Homelessness Australia. According to their latest report, done in conjunction with the The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association, the number of families with children accessing homelessness services rose by five per cent between the 2022-23 financial year and the 2023-24 financial year. Of that five per cent increase, 31 per cent were Indigenous, with homelessness services assisting over 24,000 Indigenous children over that period. Darren Smith is the CEO of Aboriginal Housing Victoria and the Chair of the Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Forum in Victoria. "I think the first thing to recognise is that there's a history of exclusion, which includes exclusion from housing for Aboriginal people that's gone on for generations in this country. Aboriginal people are 15 times more likely to experience homelessness in Victoria, which really relates to that legacy of colonisation, dispossession, and decades of policy failure." Without adequate resourcing, homelessness organisations are being forced to turn away families in need. Over the two years, data shows a 12 per cent increase in the number of First Nations families already homeless when they first asked for support, and those still homeless at the end of support rose by 8 per cent. Kate Colvin says children are particularly vulnerable in unstable housing. "We know that when children are homeless, often they have to move from place to place. There might only be temporary accommodation available for a very short time, and then they have to move somewhere else. Or oftentimes there's not temporary accommodation available at all and people end up couch surfing, sleeping cars, sometimes even on the street." The Yoorrook Justice Commission was Victoria's and Australia's first formal truth-telling inquiry led by First Peoples, into historic and ongoing systemic injustices perpetrated against First Peoples through colonisation. One focus area in the inquiry was child protection. In Victoria, First Nations children are 21.7 times more likely to be in out-of-home care. First Nations youth in Victoria are also incarcerated at a rate of 10.4 times the rate of non-Indigenous youth. Darren Smith says homelessness is just one consequence of these systemic injustices. "We know that there's a high proportion of Aboriginal children that are in out of home care and involved with a child protection system who are turning up into homelessness services to access housing support. And we should be able to actually do something that can resolve those issues for those young people. And it's part of preventing the next generation of child removals." For kids, not having a stable address often means being unable to attend school. Kate Colvin says that when housing instability starts in youth, it's more likely to persist into adulthood. "It's very difficult for children to stay connected to their education in that circumstance. Even if they're going to school, they might really struggle to fully participate in the classroom. So it has then often a long-term impact with adults who are homeless, particularly rough sleeping, often having had their first experience of homelessness as a child. So huge impacts. And we think that this is such a huge priority for government. We shouldn't have children homeless in Australia, and we really hope that this goes to the top of their priority list." Homelessness comes in different forms, with those sleeping rough making up just over 5 per cent of people experiencing homelessness in 2021. While First Nations people account for under 4 per cent of the total population, they account for 28 per cent of all homeless people in Australia. Darren Smith says generations of disadvantage mean many First Nations families don't have intergenerational wealth to fall back on. "Without safe, secure and affordable housing, people don't have the stability to support themselves. So we understand, and we know about intergenerational wealth as well. So, the fact that people don't have the security so that they can get the kind of opportunities in terms of employment, kids not going to school, all those things contribute in the longer term to the ability to create wealth over a lifetime and intergenerational wealth and without that passing of intergenerational wealth from parents to their children, they're behind the market, behind the ball in terms of being able to actually access the housing market themselves in the future." There are many reasons for homelessness, including poverty, lack of housing supply, domestic and family violence and relationship breakdowns. Kate Colvin says that when people access homelessness services before the point of crisis, they are far less likely to become homeless. "So what we know is that if someone comes to a homeless service and can get that early intervention support, so they come to a homelessness service, they're at risk of homelessness, in 80 per cent of circumstances, they don't become homeless. So the homeless service can help negotiate issues that may have arisen with the landlord, might be able to help assist with some arrears if that's the issue. Or sometimes if it's family breakdown, often we have young people who are experiencing homelessness because of conflict or difficulties at home. And a homelessness service might be able to assist that young person to return safely home if that's possible, or to stay safely perhaps with another family member." The problem, she says, is that with surging demand for these services, those not yet in crisis can't be prioritised. "But the problem is that when people come to a homelessness service, they've got so many people who just don't have accommodation that evening that they're triaging the support that's available. And so it does end up going to someone who is in that more immediate and desperate circumstance, but then down the track, the problem is, is that it's much harder to rehouse people than it is to stop the tenancy breakdown." With nationwide housing supply issues, even those with secure employment are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable, appropriate housing. Dr Erika Martino is a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Health Policy at the University of Melbourne. She says that racism can also be a barrier to getting rentals. "Our work and also more broad evidence in the sector suggests that racism in the rental market is widespread, but it's often under-reported and also extremely hard to prove. And this can include being ignored by agents offered fewer inspections, asked to pay more rent or much more rent upfront to secure the properties. We heard that a lot, that people had to cough up to six months rent to secure a place. And these practices are essentially, I would say, facilitated by an unequal power dynamic within the rental system that preferences housing provider rights over tenant rights." Darren Smith says that some landlords and real estate agents make assumptions about potential renters and sometimes prioritise non-Indigenous applicants. "We certainly see that Aboriginal people don't have the same opportunities that everyone else has. So if there's a choice, Aboriginal people are at the bottom of it. We do hear stories, particularly for regional areas about families being knocked back for properties. Assumptions being made about who the renters are or potential renters are based on their surnames. And even we see discrimination from time to time where people are working for Aboriginal organisations that there's an assumption around Aboriginality where they don't get the same kind of opportunities to access private rental markets." Homelessness is not only an issue of housing, but of health. Dr Martino says if rising rates aren't dealt with, Australia's health system will also be impacted. "There is a large body of evidence both generated from within my research group and internationally that shows that homelessness and housing insecurity are strongly linked to poor, physical and also poor mental health outcomes. So for example, people experiencing homelessness face higher rates of chronic illness, injury, disability, and also premature mortality. And mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and trauma are both causes and consequences of housing instability. " If the rate of Indigenous people accessing homelessness services in Victoria were scaled up to the general population of Victoria, it would be around 1.2 million people. If 1.2 million Victorians were accessing homelessness services, it would likely be declared a national emergency. Kate Colvin says the longer this crisis goes unaddressed, the more investment will be needed down the line. "So the main issue with federal and state interventions in homelessness is that there's just simply not enough resourcing. So for example, when we have a health crisis like COVID , there was a huge surge in investment into hospitals because there was a recognition that more people would need that emergency intervention. But we have had a growing and growing and growing housing crisis in this country, and the governments just haven't responded by increasing investment in homelessness services. " While the Australian government has committed to building more homes, not all forms of housing are appropriate for everyone. Dr Martino says problems often arise when social housing models are treated as one size fits all. "There are in particular certain housing forms that are, or models that don't work particularly well. So for example, shared or high density settings, housing can often retraumatise women who have been experienced abuse or violence. And some of my research, having spoken to some women who've been through say, the crisis accommodation system because there's not enough crisis accommodation available, often women will end up in motels due to insufficient supply, and this is actually placed or places women at further risk. And this will sometimes mean that women end up returning to unsafe family homes. So they're essentially forced to choose between homelessness and violence." The Australian Government's Closing the Gap Target aims to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized housing to 88 per cent by 2031. While improvements have been made, the government is not on track to meet those targets. Darren Smith says that to provide culturally safe and appropriate housing for Aboriginal people, there needs to be more investment in the Aboriginal community controlled sector. "The first thing you need to do when you need to address homelessness is you need to be able to provide people with a home. And we have 7,000 Aboriginal people across Victoria at the moment that are seeking social housing, and we need to make sure that the Aboriginal community controlled sector is supported so that they can actually provide that housing." Kate Colvin says if the government wants to see serious improvements, it must put First Nations-led organisations in charge of leading the efforts. "Homelessness Australia is seeking to resolve that by really calling for a change in direction from the government. So we want to see a dedicated First Nations led housing and homelessness plan to really put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in charge of what the solutions are and delivering those resources. Because what we can see is that it hasn't worked when governments have just made decisions for First Nations communities and delivered resources in ways that haven't been successful."
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