On Christmas day, hundreds of people will be sleeping rough on city streets in conditions unimaginable to a lot of people.
A significant proportion of these homeless people will be aged between 18 and 30, says Helen Robinson, who leads the Homeless Outreach and Support section of the Auckland City Mission.
In fact, 2011 figures for the Wellington night shelter show that 30% of clients who turned up seeking accommodation were in this age bracket.
Robinson says there’s a swathe of reasons young people end up living on the streets and it’s very difficult to generalise how a person ends up in such a situation.
“Every story is unique and quite rich and complex, but we do see a lot of people come to Auckland with the hope of finding work in the big city. But that they are unable to find work and are left in a situation where they have no family support or friends around them.
“These people are particularly vulnerable anyway, and all it takes is some significant life event that throws them and they end up homeless.”
It’s simple enough to say that these people can just move back home, but Helen Robinson says it often depends on that person’s family situation, which can also be under significant pressure.
“Often what we find for someone to be sleeping homeless is that they’re facing a variety of complex issues which could be about poverty, mental illness or addiction, or any combination of those.
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These factors all form part of a downward spiral that results in people having to live under bridges, in shop-entrances, abandoned buildings, parks, or on street corners.
“[They] literally have no shelter or roof over their head. It means not having enough food to eat; it means not having enough money to access basic services like buses or transport. It means struggling to access the most basic of services like toilets, showers and clothes,” says Robinson. “The fundamental needs of shelter, food and warmth are just unable to be met.”
While Robinson says it’s too early to tell if youth homelessness is growing, she says people in the 18-30 age brackets are particularly vulnerable and they need support to be able to access good work or study while they’re still young.
“It’s really tricky to pull yourself out of this situation. Essentially, there is one provider of emergency accommodation in Auckland city. You have to be referred by us or Lifewise to this hostel where you can stay for up to a month.
“That allows time for us and others to get these people access to services which will hopefully help them get up the ladder. It means we can access services like WINZ, we can attend to their needs physically or mentally, it could be about family reconciliation or reintegration or it could be about accessing alcohol and drug services.”
Helen Robinson says the problem of youth homelessness, or homelessness in general, is bigger than a lot of people would imagine, and even she’s sometimes shocked at the level of need that exists.
“We’re currently in our pre-Christmas rush and there are literally thousands of people queuing here for food and presents. Seeing that level of desperate need - even for someone who does this for a day job - is quite shocking.”
Helen Robinson says the key to solving homelessness among people aged 18-30 is targeting some of the key areas that make people vulnerable: Poverty, family violence, alcohol, drugs, and educational achievement; stepping in before people end up on the streets.
She says the mission supports anything that can help do that.