As 13,000 homeless Australian children call for help – a nation-leading Adelaide project is tackling the problem head on, says Uniting Communities Executive Director Services Robyn Sutherland.

Right now, 13,000 Australian children aged 12 to 17 years are seeking help from homelessness services without a parent or carer. Most are girls. Four in five exit services without a stable home to go to. For children in contact with the homelessness system, suicide is the leading cause of death.

I’ve been in this sector for more than 40 years, and this crisis is nothing new. Back then, I watched too many unaccompanied children and youths bounce from couch to couch, crisis service to foster care, never finding stability. Research has long shown that child and youth homelessness negatively impacts physical and mental health, disrupts education and leads to lifelong disadvantage — unemployment, unsafe substance use, imprisonment.

We knew we couldn’t just pick up the pieces later — we had to intervene earlier. That’s why we........

© InDaily