Victoria's homelessness sector has urged the state government to act on a landmark new blueprint for the first dedicated youth homelessness strategy in two decades.
The Victorian Youth Homelessness Assembly Final Report, released today by the Assembly's Steering Committee, documents sector recommendations across six key reform areas: prevention and early intervention, family violence responses, crisis accommodation, supported housing, transition programs, and health and holistic care.
The Steering Committee has written to Premier Jacinta Allan and eight portfolio ministers calling on the Victorian Government to fund and co-design a new Youth Homelessness Strategy based on the report's findings.
In 2024-25, 22,835 young people sought support from homelessness services - representing 22 per cent of all clients, with half presenting alone. Youth homelessness is now the most common pathway into adult homelessness.
"The sector came together in April last year with a shared conviction that Victoria's young people deserve better than a system built on luck," said Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale.
"What the Assembly produced was a clear, evidence-based vision for reform, built from the ground up, with practitioners and young people who've lived this experience at the centre. The final report is their work. Now the government must act."
The strategy should be co-designed with the sector and with young people with lived experience, with coordinated action across housing, child protection, education, justice and health.
"The brilliant young people who spoke at the Assembly told us they felt 'lucky' to have found a compassionate support worker or the right service," Ms Di Natale said.
"We need to build a system that's not based on luck - one that gives every single young person who comes to us the support they need and the opportunity to thrive."
Victoria has had no dedicated Youth Homelessness Strategy since 2006.
The 2020 Parliamentary Inquiry into Homelessness recommended a shift from crisis management to prevention and early intervention - recommendations that remain unfulfilled, particularly for young people.
The Victorian Youth Homelessness Assembly was convened by Council to Homeless Persons and held in Melbourne on 29-30 April 2025, with premier partners Melbourne City Mission and Homes Victoria.
