Push for transitional 50-bed Great Southern Foyer Project to tackle youth homelessness continues for groups

Rising youth homelessness in the Great Southern has prompted local groups to band together and push for a “stepping stone” accommodation facility to house and support more than 50 young people for up to two years. The Great Southern Foyer Project, put forward by Albany Youth Support Association and Advance Housing, proposes a 50-bed transitional facility to help young people aged 16-24 move from crisis refuges to stable, independent living. The model is based on the national Foyer Foundation framework, already used in 16 similar facilities across the country, providing affordable housing units with wraparound support for tenants. “We see in many communities a significant number of young people facing homelessness, usually because of family violence, family breakdown, and all too often there is not enough crisis beds for them to allow them to stabilise, and even fewer options for them to exit into once they’ve had a period in crisis services,” Foyer Foundation co-chief executive Corin Moffatt said. “I think if you imagine any young person you’ve ever met, and imagine putting them in a house with no support and expecting them to navigate the pathway to adulthood — learn how to cook, clean, manage tenancy, navigate Centrelink, figure your way out to finding your first job — it’s pretty hard to set up a young person to succeed without that support, and that’s where foyers come in.” The proposed facility would also include a 10-bed youth refuge, similar to AYSA’s Young House, and commercial space for youth support providers to offer 24/7 support. Ms Moffatt, who travelled from the Eastern States to visit the Albany lobbyists last week, said the foyers were designed to act as community hubs, with tenants encouraged to contribute by painting murals, cooking meals, and sharing skills. AYSA strategic project and planning executive Ian Clarke said the groups were lobbying for a foyer in Albany to combat rising youth homelessness pressures, with a total of 739 young people in the wider region on the social housing wait list and a rental vacancy rate of just 0.4 per cent. “From a perspective of per capita, that sort of thing is actually very high down here, but we also have quite an itinerant group of young people that come through from all over the place,” he said. “We’ve had someone from Newman down here, and at one stage had four or five young people from Plantagenet. “One of the messages that we keep giving to government is, whilst we are place-based here, we’re very much a regional, in fact, State resource, and that young people do come from everywhere if they will actually get that support.” Albany mayor Greg Stocks said the project was a “can’t miss” opportunity, with the City of Albany already identifying a centrally located piece of freehold land on which to build the facility. “The fact that we’ve got Young House here with . . . eight beds in a population of 43,500 and a regional centre with 69,500 people, that’s not enough — it can’t possibly be enough,” he said. “And so 50 beds where people have up to two years, where they’re coached, mentored — the cost to the State Government has to be less in terms of a person who’s a lifetime welfare recipient committing crime and has substance issues. “If you can get the early intervention, the council see that model and go ‘you can’t miss that’.” Advance Housing strategy and projects manager Kim Daniels said the project had been more than three years in the making and was “investment-ready”, with designs drawn up, land secured, and budgets finalised. Applications for State and Federal Government funding are under way, with outcomes expected early next year. “We’ve proven that every dollar you invest in a foyer, governments get a $6 return, and about half of that goes to the Commonwealth, and half of that goes to the States,” Ms Moffat said. “Foyers have an 80 per cent success rate, and with young people working, they’re paying taxes, they’re less likely to be in the justice system, the housing system, the health system, all of those costs a young person who faces a lifetime of adult homelessness would impose on the State. “So it’s kind of a no-brainer as an investment.”