Nearly half of vulnerable young Victorians turning to homelessness services alone are battling mental health conditions so severe they should be in hospital, shocking new analysis reveals.
Fresh analysis of data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows a staggering 10,924 young people aged 15 to 24 turned to homelessness services alone last year, with nearly half (5,276) grappling with mental health conditions serious enough to warrant hospitalisation.
Council to Homeless Persons Chief Executive Deborah Di Natale said the figures expose a deadly gap between crisis care and housing support, and the urgent need for a dedicated plan for the state's homeless youth.
"Young people are presenting to emergency departments alone, suicidal and in crisis, only to be turned away or discharged straight back into homelessness," Ms Di Natale said.
"This is the result of services operating in silos, with no overarching plan enabling agencies and providers to work together.
"We are in desperate need of a dedicated Youth Homelessness Strategy built specifically around the needs of young people that ensures they will no longer be let down by a fragmented, uncoordinated system not designed for them."
The warning comes despite a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System in 2021 which called for 500 dedicated mental health homes to support young people in acute crisis.
"The Victorian Government accepted every recommendation of this inquiry but years on, these homes have still not been delivered," Ms Di Natale said.
"We're now living in a mental health emergency when it comes to young people experiencing homelessness and it's deeply concerning."
Melbourne City Mission CEO Paul Wappett said young people continue to be robbed of the support they need to stay safe.
"We are seeing young people in acute distress turned away from hospitals because their cries for help are being misread as a request for a bed, rather than the mental health emergency they are," Mr Wappett said.
"In some cases, they are denied care altogether because they don't have a fixed address. That is not just unacceptable, it is a fundamental failure of our duty of care to children and young people."
"Every four days in Australia, a young person dies while experiencing homelessness. Many of these young people have repeatedly sought help presenting at emergency departments in mental health distress, or turning to homelessness services alone, only to be told there is nowhere for them to go."
"At MCM, we are supporting young people in such severe mental health crisis that they require emergency care, yet they are discharged back into homelessness, sometimes in a taxi, with nowhere safe to land. These are children, some as young as 16, left alone at their most vulnerable."
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data also reveals 14,261 young people aged 15-24 came to Victorian homelessness services needing medium or long-term accommodation last year and, of these, 9,102 were turned away without the accommodation they needed.
"Even when young people do seek help the system is not keeping up. Last year more than 9,000 young people were denied stable housing - which is almost two thirds of those who sought accommodation," Ms Di Natale said.
"Victoria is failing its young people. We urgently need 5000 social housing homes specifically for young people experiencing homelessness to safeguard these lives."
