As Victoria prepares for its fiercely contested November state election, a new ground-breaking report has laid bare the catastrophic human cost of failing to address youth homelessness, laying the responsibility squarely at the feet of the next incoming government regardless of which party claims power.
Released earlier this week by Melbourne City Mission (MCM), the survey of 209 young people aged 15 to 24 exposes a systemic breakdown that pushes already vulnerable homeless youth into repeated emergency department (ED) visits for life-threatening mental health emergencies. The data paints an alarming picture: more than 50% of young people accessing homelessness services in Melbourne have visited a hospital ED for urgent mental health concerns. Of these cases, nearly 60% involve self-harm, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempts, and 17% of young people have been admitted to the ED four or more times for the same issues.
The report also uncovers deep-rooted trauma that precedes homelessness for most young people in the system. Five out of six respondents who accessed support services had grown up in households plagued by family violence, and roughly two-thirds had prior interaction with Victoria’s child protective services. Geographic data adds another layer to the crisis: in the Latrobe/Gippsland region, more than half of homeless young people have been without stable housing for two years or longer, while in Greater Melbourne, more than 25% have been unhoused for four years or more.
In response to the findings, MCM and leading youth mental health service Orygen are calling on all political parties contesting the election to commit to building a fully funded, dedicated supported housing model specifically for vulnerable young people. The proposed model would mirror a partially implemented housing program already promised and rolled out for adults, adapted to meet the unique needs of homeless youth.
Orygen executive director Professor Pat McGorry emphasized that stable, supported housing is not a secondary add-on to mental health care—it is a core intervention. “You cannot recover from a mental health crisis while you are sleeping rough or moving between temporary crisis beds,” McGorry explained. “Housing has to be part of youth mental health care, not an afterthought for when a young person has recovered. The Royal Commission made a promise to address this and so far the Victorian government has failed to deliver.”
MCM chief executive Paul Wappett added that the current system traps young people in a devastating cycle: young people are treated for mental health crises in hospital, only to be discharged back into homelessness with no safe alternative. “Every young person in this snapshot has a story that starts with trauma and ends up in an emergency department, because there is nowhere else for them to go,” Wappett said. “Police, paramedics and hospital staff are working in a broken system and none of them can give a young person the home they need. That’s not a job any of them signed up for, and it’s not a job they should have to do.”
The human impact of this policy failure is illustrated by the experience of Clara, a young Victorian who experienced chronic homelessness after being forced to leave her home at 18 to escape ongoing family violence. After leaving home, Clara cycled between temporary youth refuges, rough sleeping, and repeated ED visits for mental health emergencies. The instability and trauma derailed her education, despite her previous academic success, and her mental health declined so severely that she attempted suicide 42 times over six months.
Clara’s trajectory shifted only after she accessed medium-term supported housing through MCM. “Having a safe place to live gave me the stability to engage in recovery, access support, and rebuild my life,” she said. Today, Clara lives in permanent stable housing with her partner, studies biomedicine, and works as an advocate in MCM’s outreach team. “My experience has shown me that safe housing is not just a roof over your head, it can be the foundation for recovery, hope, and a future,” she added.
With the election just six months away, advocates are ramping up pressure on both major parties and minor candidates to prioritize this critical reform to end the cycle of trauma and hospitalisation facing Victoria’s most vulnerable young people.